I made my Christmas cake a few weeks ago, and have been feeding it with brandy to keep it moist and taste even lovelier! Then came the fun part: decorating it. I want it to be the centrepiece of my Winter Woodland dessert table so I went for a sugar paste reindeer sitting amongst a snowy woodland. Here's how I did it:
Winter Woodland Christmas Cake
Ingredients
Christmas cake (gluten free recipe)
Marzipan
Apricot baking glaze
Roll on white icing
Royal icing
Sugar paste reindeer x 1
Sugar paste acorns x 5
Iced leaves x 35
Meiji mushroom cookies x 2
White hologram glitter
Brush on dust in Ivory Shimmer
White petal paste
Icing sugar
Sugar pearls
Chocolate orange Matchmakers broken into pieces 3-5 cm long
Equipment
Cake stand or board
Rolling pin
Cake smoother (optional)
Sieve
Ribbon
2 pins
Icing bag fitted with star nozzle
Decorating instructions
- Place cake on cake stand upside down so top is completely flat.
- Knead marzipan into a ball.
- Dust icing sugar onto a hard clean surface and roll out marzipan to 5mm thick.
- Melt the apricot jam.
- Brush cake with apricot jam.
- Lift up marzipan using rolling pin.
- Place on cake and smooth out so entire cake is covered in marzipan.
- Cut off any excess, leave to dry for 24 hours.
- Knead roll on icing into a ball.
- Dust icing sugar onto a hard clean surface and roll out roll-on icing to 5mm thick.
- Lift up icing using rolling pin.
- Place on cake and smooth out so entire cake is covered in icing. (I use a cake smoother to give it a polish and professional finish)
- Push sugar pearls into side of cake where cake meets cake stand.
- Wrap ribbon around side of cake and secure with 2 pins.
- Make up royal icing as per instructions on packet.
- Spoon some royal icing in a large circle on top of the cake, using a fork to lift it into snowy peaks.
- Lightly push sugar paste reindeer into royal icing in centre of cake.
- Lightly push leaves and chocolate Matchsticks into royal icing around outside edge of circle.
- Lightly push mushroom cookies and acorns into royal icing around reindeer.
- Spoon remainder of royal icing into piping bag with a small star nozzle at the end.
- Pipe a small amount of icing onto back of leaves and press into centre of ribbon around cake.
- Dust cake in sieved icing sugar.
- Sprinkle cake in white glitter.
Have a sweet day!