Can I Make A Smaller Chocolate Fruit Cake?

Our answer

Nigella's Chocolate Fruit Cake (from FEAST) is a variation of a rich fruit cake but, unlike more traditional fruit cakes, it doesn't need long maturing and can be eaten straight away. The cake is made in a 20cm (8-inch) springform pan.

We are not sure exactly what diameter of cake pan you have in mind, but if you are using a 15cm (6-inch) pan then you usually use a half quantity of the ingredients and if you are using a 10cm (4-inch) pan then it is usually a one quarter quantity of the ingredients. Baking times are also not a straight line calculation and usually for a half quantity of the cake batter it would be about 60% of the baking time, so around 1 hour 5 minutes to 1 hour 20 minutes for the 15cm cake. For small cakes it is even more difficult but we suspect the baking time would be around 45-50 minutes for a 10cm cake. As the cake doesn't rise much you can start checking 5 minutes in advance of the expected baking time and at 5-10 minute intervals after that. The cake should be firm on top and a cake tester inserted into the centre should come out clean. However, please note that as we have not tried the cake in a smaller form ourselves, these are only guidelines and we are unable to guarantee the results.