Decorating the Christmas cake

Once your cake is done, it is time to decorate it. And as it is Christmas Eve now is the time! 

Cover in apricot jam and then roll out on a surface covered in icing sugar around 500g marzipan.

Then drape over cake and smooth

Then roll out a layer of fondant icing (around 750g) again on a surface covered in icing sugar. The drape over the cake and smooth.

Once you have done this, decorate as you wish. I went for something quite minimalist and piped a simple decoration with a white water icing, but obviously you can go much bigger! 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

 

Christmas Cake: Round 2

My own Christmas cake recipe which I did last year but with some improvements which should make it better than ever.

Ingredients:

500g Raisins
400g Sultanas
125g Cranberries
110g Glace Cherries
120g Mixed Peel
120ml Limencello (you can use sherry/brandy if you prefer)
225g Butter
195g Brown Sugar
Zest of 2 oranges
4 eggs
2 tbsps Orange Marmalade
295g Plain Flour
55g Ground Almonds
1 tsp Almond Essence
1 tsp Nutmeg
1 tsp Mixed Spice
1/2 tsp Cinnamon

Method:
1. Put all your dried fruit into a bowl, pour the limoncello over the top, cover and leave to soak for about an hour.

2. Preheat your oven to 150 degrees / gas mark

3. And line your tin. Now this is more complicated than it sounds... Wrap brown paper around the outside of the tin so it stands above the top of the tin by 10cm, secure with string wrapped around it. Then line the tin as normal with butter and baking paper.

4.Cream the butter and sugar together.

5.Beat in the orange zest

6. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each one, and then the marmalade.

7. Mix the dry ingredients together and add to the creamed mixture alternately with the dried fruit until all is combined.

8. Add the almond essence and mix thoroughly.

9. Put the cake mix into the cake tin and bake for about 3/3.5 hours or until a skewer comes out clean. If your oven is quite savage, like mine, I would advise making a hat for your cake out of tin foil to prevent the top from burning.

10. When the cake is finished wrap in foil and put into a tin immediately to cool so that the steam is trapped and keeps the cake moist on the top.

11. Then re-wrap in tinfoil, (don't cover the top this time) and return to the tin.

12. You will need to "feed" your cake with a liqueur of choice regularly in order to preserve the cake and add extra flavor.

And with that, good luck!