Can I Make A Smaller Version Of The Christmas Cake?

Our answer

Nigella has several different cake recipes that are suitable for Christmas, but we are assuming that it is a rich fruit cake and either the Time-Honoured Christmas Cake from FEAST or the Traditional Christmas Cake from NIGELLA CHRISTMAS. Both of these recipes have ingredient quantities for a round cake made in an 18cm (7-inch) springform pan. For a 15cm (6-inch) springform pan you need, in theory, 3/4 (or 75%) of the 18cm cake ingredient quantities.

If you need half an egg with the scaled-down quantity, then we suggest using one egg yolk instead of the half an egg and freezing the white to use another time. The baking time would need to be reduced if using the same oven temperature and we would guess at the baking time being around 1 1/2 hours, but we suggest initially checking the cake after 1 1/4 hours. The cake should feel firm on top and a cake tester inserted into the centre should come out clean. If the cake is not done, bake for another 10 minutes and check again. But please note that as we have not tried either of the rich fruit Cristmas cakes in this size, we are unable to guarantee the results.