Baking question:

IlonaRN

If the recipe says to use an 8" cake tin, and I only have a 10" cake tin, will it be a problem? Would I need to bake the cake for a shorter/longer time?

MrsBartolozzi

The mix will spread over a much larger area (assuming round tin area of 8"= 50.27 inches square: area of 10" tin= 78.54 inches square), so the 10" tin is 1 and 1/2 times the size of the smaller one.
Ideally you'd make up a bigger mix (x1.5 would be ideal) or the cake would be wider and not rise so high. You'd need to bake the cake for a shorter time, but depending on the type of cake it won't be as light and airy as if it were done in a smaller tin, if you know what I mean. Sorry if it's a bit confusing, I'm being harrassed by children .

IlonaRN

Thank you MrsBartolozzi It's my Christmas cake, so I don't think it matters so much about the light and airy bit, as it will be pretty dense anyway. Will just have to keep an eye on it while baking!

MrsBartolozzi

Hi there, Ilona, I've just corrected my sums, and sorry I used the wrong formula!:o The tin is 1.5x the size in the recipe. I'd be more inclined to make more mix rather than cook in a such a big tin. I hope if you've already cooked the cake it went ok.

seraphina

I've made this mistake before with christmas cake - my recipe was for a 7inch tin and I cooked it in an 8 inch tin. It wound up being very thin and overcooked because it was in the oven for much longer than it should have been for being so thin. Was useless for icing - it would have looked like a marzipan covered pancake!

One of the most important things to get right in baking is the mixture/tin ratio so if you haven't started already I'd do what a previous poster suggested (can't remember name, sorry) and increase the mix. It's a dense fruit cake so it won't rise too much.

tandraig

if my tin was bigger i would reduce cooking time! test it half hour before recipe says it should be done. you can see by the skewer you insert if middle cooked and if skewer clean its done! if skewer only slightly sticky then it needs more time - bit confusing - but you should be able to judge if it needs ten or thirty mins more by how sticky the skewer is!

IlonaRN

Well, it's in the tin and in the oven. It was supposed to have an hour at 160C, then an hour at 140C, then be covered in greaseproof and have another 1 1/2 or 2h at 140C. It's had 45 mins so far, and I've just reduced the heat to 140C. Will check it in another 45 mins and see how it looks.

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If I'd realised, I would have done 1 1/2 times recipe, but I just didn't think to check, and probably didn't have enough ingredients to do that anyway. Thank you very much for your help. I'll let you know how it looks when it's done!

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I've only really made sponge-type cakes before, and just do them in whatever tin I have, checking to see when done. I had thought this wouldn't be much different, but I must admit I hadn't thought to check until tonight, and needed to make it tonight as I don't have time the rest of the week (and it's already late!).

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Edit: My paragraphs keep disappearing!