Decorated Christmas Cake Tutorial

This showstopper cake will be the centrepiece of your Christmas celebrations and not alone is it impressive but it is easy to decorate too.

Serves 8-10


Ingredients
1 x 8inch Christmas cake
2 tbsp Apricot jam
300g Marzipan
500g White Sugarpaste
Edible glue (Optional)
Edible silver lustre powder
Edible metallic silver food paint
Icing sugar for dusting

Equipment
Rolling pin
Cake smoother/polisher
Sharp knife
Small brush
Cake board
Wide silver ribbon
Scissors 
Snowflake or similar Christmas themed cutters

Method
Allow your cake to cool completely before storing in a cool dark place for two weeks if possible before decorating.

I usually feed my Christmas cake with whiskey or brandy for at least two weeks before I decorate it.

Using a bread knife or similar long blade level the top of the cake or if you prefer turn your cake upside down and decorate the flat bottom.

Place the cake onto the cake board and brush the entire cake with the apricot jam, this will help the marzipan adhere to the cake.

Dust your work surface with icing sugar and roll out the marzipan, cover the cake with the marzipan and trim off the excess. Brush the marzipan covered cake with another layer of apricot jam. 

Dust your work surface with a liberal amount of icing sugar and roll out 400g white sugarpaste, lay the sugarpaste centrally over the cake and gently smooth over the cake. If you have small creases around the bottom of the cake don't worry the ribbon will cover any creases .Trim off the excess sugarpaste and smooth the cake with the cake smoothers/polishers.

Take the remaining 100g of white sugarpaste and on a work surface dusted with icing sugar cut out the snowflakes. Roll out five balls ranging in size from a cherry to the largest being the size of a ping pong ball. Roll out 4-5 tiny balls - or cut the small circles out of rolled sugarpaste with a round piping tip- for the top of the baubles.

I personalised some of the baubles with various sugarpaste designs and brushed all of them with the edible silver lustre - use a dry brush for the lustre powder. Glue the tops of the baubles with either edible glue or with a small amount of boiled and cooled water.

Brush all the snowflakes with the edible lustre, giving them a generous coating to each.

Take the largest of the balls and using the cake smoother roll it into a cone shape, snip around the cone shape with a clean scissors to create a snow laden pine tree. Brush with silver lustre powder.

Glue all the elements onto the top of the cake - edible glue or boiled and cooled water - paint the tops of the baubles with the edible silver paint.

Secure the ribbon around the cake and you're finished.