Icing the Christmas Cake

I iced and decorated my cake on Nov 30th. I have always baked it at the beginning of Oct, Marsipaned it 2nd week of Nov and then iced it begining of December. I tend to leave the dorcation until week before christmas but I did it early this year.

I would probably go for thicker icing rather than icing twice but it's not something I've had to do as I use marzipan.

I marzipanned on Sunday (fed for final time on Friday) and will ice tomorrow as I need to take one away with us on Saturday. It keeps for ages, months really.

I did this in a rush last year which went down well and was so easy to do:

I fiddled with LTP's holly cutter and some green icing on the other one (if you read this, I'll post it this week, sorry sorry, I forgot I even had it!) but didn't manage to get a photo.

I think I'll do something similar with stars and edible glitter again this year.

Marzipan - Probably on Monday or Tuesday evening. Icing cake - Christmas eve at the lastest. Gives it 24hrs or so to harden up a little. I don't like the icing too hard. Both cakes were fed with brandy & cointreau end of November. Might give them a top up this evening.

Oh thanks both, I shoudl really get my skates on!

That cake looks fab MrsM, I have some festive cookie cutters I might be able to use which I hadn't thought of. How do you food dye roll out icing [thicko icon]? Do you sort of paint it on or knead it in?

My mum always kneeded it in. If you have hot hands you'll get sticky though.

I used roll-out sugar paste and I iced twice. I can't remember how I got it to stick- Im prety sure I used apricot jam to make the first layer stick to teh cake and then whacked the next layer on top. It resulted in a lovely thick icing (because I'd effectively replaced the marzipan with icing) and you couldn't see the fruit cake seeping through. (phew) Janeyh and LTP are your cake dec gurus. ?

MrsM, that looks ace! If that's a rush job, I can't wait to see your labour of love!

Thank you all! Mm I'm not even fussed on Christmas cake or icing but my mouth's watering ? ?

I'll hit the shops tonight and grab so icing to pay with this evening when H is out. Rock n roll ?

Thanks!

Do you have a cake shop or a supermarket with a good cake aisle? You can buy ready-coloured icing from there. You can colour it yourself but it's a bit messy; you can either use proper icing colouring or use tiny amounts of standard colouring, using a cocktail stick to dab the colour on and wear gloves!

If you want it to stand up, either use mexican flower paste (from cake shop, which comes in all colours but is quite pricey) or do shapes at least 24 hours in advance to allow them to dry properly.

Sorry, this post makes it sound complicated but it's really not! ?

Ahh, thanks Lou! ? The sparklers were a gift from MF, I must try to find some this year, it made a rushed cake look quite impressive on Christmas Day! I was so rushed it made me cry and wanted to throw the whole cake in the bin. ?

Have fun Jaz! I hate fruit cake (never ever eat them) but do like making and icing them, it's something I've done for about 12 or so years.