In article >,
Damsel in dis Dress > wrote:


> HELL, no! I love the stuff! But Mom's recipe makes about 7 billion
> cakes, so it gets pretty expensive. I haven't made it in many years.


> That's where I sit right now, too. I'm either going to grab someone
> else's recipe and make only a couple of loaves, or I'll make Mom's
> entire recipe and plead insanity later.

> For holiday cookie/treat plates, you can make fruitcake in muffin tins
> with holiday cupcake liners, then wrap in plastic wrap. I also make
> them in my teeny-tiny bread pans. And in yam cans and coffee tins
> (except we don't drink coffee - I have witnesses!). I just wish I
> remembered how to figure out the baking times for all those different
> sizes and shapes.

> Carol, fifty and fading


Fifty was a while back for me. Day after tomorrow is 56. I'm not
looking forward to it.

I don't know what your problem is with your Mom's fruitcake recipe. If
you are going to make meatballs, and have a recipe for 20, then if you
want 40 or 10, just double or halve the ingredients. Not a problem.
Not so simple with meatloaf. The directions for cooking won't be the
same if you double or halve. Meatloaf is pretty forgiving, though.
Most people don't advise scaling baking recipes, unless you know what
you are doing. The leavening, baking time and baking temperature all
vary according to size of what you are making. Still, if you have a
recipe for one cake, and you want two, just double the ingredients. The
recipe should be the same. If you have a recipe for two cakes, and you
only want one, just cut the ingredients in half. It should be fine. I
think that fruitcake is more forgiving than most baking. You've already
posted that you might do muffin tins and coffee cans. If you are using
the same recipe for both, then the whole scaling thing is already out
the window. If your Mom's recipe makes 8 loaves, and you just want two,
then cut all the ingredients by four. I'm not the baker in the family,
but I made fruitcake once. I did muffin tins and bread pans at the same
time. I just took out the muffin tins a whole lot earlier.

--
Dan Abel

Petaluma, California, USA