Very small cake tin substitute

bluedog

DM is in a residential home and only wants a very small christmas cake this year instead of the 1lb tin size I usually make for her. We're making them today so it's reached desperation levels.

Finding a suitably sized one has proved to be mission impossible so today I went to the very expensive cookery shop as my last hope. I want one that is about quarter 1lb sized and they had every size but that one.

The (knowledgeable) lady recommended using a half sized baked beans tin as the benefit is that you can use a tin opener to open the bottom and push the cake out when it's cooked!! I'm giving it a go although using a heinz tinned pudding tin instead. (obviously will wrap it well with brown paper.)

I'd never have thought of using something like this and wondered if anyone else has ever made any cakes this way?

caledoniaquine

Ive not but I have heard of it being done, the pudding ones if its one of those puddings that has jam syrup etc over it would be a good size I would think.

Butterfly_Brain

Hobbycraft do a 6 inch cake tin. I have tried using the big Heinz Soup tins before but it can be tricky getting them out
You could also Make a large square cake and cut into four quarters

kethry

yup. did one last year for a friend who was on a diet (but needed at least a little bit of home made xmas cake and pud), used a heinz pudding tin, like you have. it worked very well actually. the fiddliest part was lining the thing! did make sure to wrap it in newspaper/brown paper as well, and put a cover on it too. didn't have any problems getting it out of the tin (in fact, i kept the tin for this year in case anyone else wanted a small one), but then i did line it properly and greased it properly - IIRC it just slid out the tin when i turned it upside down.

good luck!

keth
xx

Seakay

I used a selection of food tins when making individual Christmas cakes one year. They all worked well, only tricky thing was working out oven times. I greased them using a pastry brush to avoid the possibility of cutting myself, lined them with greaseproof and greased again. Tied a double layer of newspaper around the outside but didn't bother with a lid.

thriftlady_2

When I made my grandmother's 100th birthday cake last month I made a one and two zeros. For the zeros I made seven inch round cakes then used a four inch biscuit cutter to cut out holes. The cut out bits made lovely mini fruit cakes.

Could you not do that -make a normal sized round cake and cut out a smaller one? Scoff the leftover bits.

Glad

when my children made xmas cakes in junior school this is what they used to bake them in

Harriett

Baked bean tins are perfect to use.

If you wanted a proper cake tin, TK Maxx have had some of the small tins, about 5" in diameter, around £2 each I think.

What about making the normal sized one in a square tin if you have one, and quarter it? You can then have 4 small Christmas cakes to ice, and could give the others as small gifts?

JonTurner

We used to use bean tins to make little Christmas cakes at primary school- they work brilliantly, and you get a lovely mini cake

Reformed

That's a brilliant idea I would never have thought of using them - bluedog - let us know how they turn out!

Olliebeak

Many years ago I was an avid Woman's Weekly reader, and baked bean tins were suggested back in 1974 for Christmas Cakes for elderly parents/grandparents. Unfortunately, I didn't keep the recipe as it had suggested amounts/timings etc.