Decorating the Christmas Cake

So a few weeks ago I showed you how to make a Christmas Cake. You have been feeding it with brandy so now its time to decorate it. I will show you how to put marzipan and icing on the cake but decorating the top is up to you. You can buy icing and marzipan figures for the top to save time or buy coloured icing and make your own figures.

1 Christmas Cake

Fruit Cake - Either bought or made own
4 tbsp Apricot Jam
3 tbsp Brandy
Icing Sugar
Bit of water
Colour Icing/Icing Dyed with various colours/Pre purchased icing figures
1 Kg Marzipan
1 Kg Ready to Roll Icing

1. Heat the apricot jam in a pan until it begins to melt. Then sieve through into a bowl. Brush onto the cake.

2. Roll out the marzipan so that it covers the cake. Roll into the rolling pin and drape over the cake. Use a knife and remove the excess.

3. Roll the icing so that it covers the cake. Brush the marzipan with the brandy. Roll the icing into the rolling pin and drape over the cake. Instead of cutting the excess either use your thumb or the bottom of a teaspoon and create a semi circle at the base of the cake to seal. Remove the excess.

So you should have something like this:

So you can leave it like this OR you could decorate and make it something really special. Something as simple as putting a few trees on it with a couple of snowmen can make it look unique and your own. Let your creative side run wild. We don't want to see those horrible shop bought top only covered Christmas cakes.

So here are a few ideas I had:

Christmas Trees:
Get some green icing and roll into a cone. Then you get your kitchen scissors and snip into the tree to make it look more authentic. If using brown icing, make a little stump for the tree. Use the icing sugar and water mix to stick together.

Snowmen:
Make 3 small white balls, ranging from large to small. Attach together using the icing sugar and water mix. If using black icing make really small balls for the buttons and mouth of the snowman. Use a brown/orange icing for the carrot nose. Use the same icing to make the twig like arms for the snowman. And with the black icing or coloured icing for a top hat/woolly cap/scarf

Penguins:
For a penguin you need black icing. You make 2 balls, one large and one smaller one. The larger one should be slightly pointed at one end for the body. Stick together using the icing sugar mix. Use orange icing for the feet and beak. Stick with these with icing sugar mixture. Using the white icing, for the stomach and eyes. Then add 2 small balls of black icing for the pupils. If you have any coloured icing left give them a little scarf.

The other things I added was blue icing for the pond and little strands of green icing around the pond. Also to add a snow effect, I sprinkled the cake with icing sugar. And a major tip for this is icing sugar mixed with water makes an amazing glue when sticking icing together. But make your Christmas Cake your own. Even if you want to buy the actual cake, have fun decorating it, it's a fun activity for the whole family. Leave pictures and comments in the post or send them to me and will post the best ones on my next blog post. And don't forget, have a Merry Christmas and a Fabulous New Year.

What will your cake look like?

Merry Christmas From Me :)