Juliet Sear's easy guide to decorating your Christmas cake!
With Christmas just days away it's time to get those finishing touches done - including decorating your Christmas cake. So today Juliet Sear is here with three simple but magical styles for you to try.
Easy guide to decorating your Christmas cake!
Each method decorates one 8” Christmas cake
Ingredients
For covering the cake in Marzipan:2 tbsp apricot jam, warmed in a pan until soft, runny and brushable2 x 454g blocks ready-made marzipanIcing sugar, for dusting
For covering the cake in White Fondant Icing: (only Christmas Wreath Cake)1kg white fondant icingBrandy or vodka, for brushing
For the Retro Royal Icing Christmas cake:
Note - this cake does not need to be covered in white fondant icing, only marzipan
750g icing sugar, sifted3 egg whitesJuice of 2 lemonsWater, if neededTo decorate - retro Christmas cake figurines and decorations of your choice.
For the Christmas Wreath Cake:150g green fondant icing 250g stiff peak green royal icing, made to packet instructions, placed in a piping bag fitted with a leaf nozzleDecorations of your choice - such as sprinkles, shop-bought candy canes and gingerbread men
For the Penguin Christmas Cake:
Note - this cake does not need to be covered in white fondant icing, only marzipan
1.2kg black ready to roll icing100g white ready to roll icing50g orange ready to roll icingA little white soft peak royal icing Pink lustre dust - optional
Methods
For covering the cake in marzipan - take a look at my YouTube tutorial.
1. Press a few pieces of marzipan onto the cake board so the cake won’t slide around, then brush the marzipan and board with the jam.
2. Put the cake upside-down on the board so you have a flat, sharp-edged surface to ice, then brush all over with jam. If the cake is uneven or pitted, use marzipan pieces to plug the gaps, then smooth with your finger so you won’t get any bumps when you cover the cake. Roll out thin sausages of marzipan and use it to fill any gaps between the bottom of the cake and the board. Smooth them over with your finger.
3. Dust the work surface with a little icing sugar and knead the marzipan blocks together until pliable. Roll out until 0.5cm thick and about 45cm in diameter. Keep it roughly circular by rolling from the centre outwards and giving it a quarter-turn as you go. You can use marzipan spacers to help you roll to an even thickness.
4. Position the spacers either side of the marzipan and roll it out. When the rolling pin is running up and down the spacers and not pressing on the marzipan it’s the correct thickness. You may need to widen the sticks as the marzipan gets larger. Sweep a little icing sugar under the marzipan as you work so it doesn’t stick to the work surface and dust the top as well – but not too much or the marzipan might become dry and brittle.
5. For the ultimate finish, once the marzipan is rolled, use a smoother to polish the surface.
6. Wrap the marzipan loosely around the rolling pin to lift it, then unroll it over the cake so it’s evenly covered, with the excess draping around the sides. Working as quickly as you can, use your hands to smooth the top of the marzipan from the centre out towards the edges, pushing out any trapped air. If using smoothers, polish the top of the cake to make a perfect flat top.
7. Gently press around the top edge to fold the marzipan down over the sides and over the cake board, being careful not to pull it down or it may rip. If the marzipan starts to crease, gently lift it up at the creasing point, smooth it out, then continue. Use a sharp knife to trim off most of the excess marzipan, leaving a 2cm border around the cake board. Lift the cake, on its board, on to a large upturned bowl with a large flat base or on to a turntable.
8. Make sure the marzipan fits neatly around the sides and at the base (use side smoothers if you have them), then run a knife along the underside of the board to cut off excess marzipan. Save the trimmings in a food bag to use again.
9. Examine the cake for any air bubbles under the marzipan. If you find one, insert a pin into it, then expel the air by gently pressing around the hole. Finally, smooth again over the top, sides and edges using the flat of your hand or smoothers. Leave the marzipan to dry overnight so it can harden.
For covering the cake in white fondant icing - take a look at my YouTube tutorial.
1. Apply the sugar paste to your cake the same way as the marzipan, following steps 4 to 10.
2. Roll the sugar paste out until it’s 0.5cm thick and 50 cm in diameter. The only difference is that you brush the marzipan with brandy or vodka – NOT apricot jam – to stick the icing on.
3. Smooth and trim the layer of sugar paste just as with the marzipan.
For the Retro Royal Icing Christmas Cake:
Note - this cake does not need to be covered in white fondant icing, only marzipan
1. Place all of the ingredients for the royal icing into a mixer and beat on slow with a paddle attachment until you have a stiff peak, glossy icing.
2. To achieve a spreadable consistency, you may need to slowly add a few drops of water at a time to the icing, mixing well until a spreadable (not runny) consistency is formed that still holds its peaks.
3. Spread the royal icing over the marzipan topped cake using a palette knife.
4. Using the palette knife, make small flicks into the royal icing to create texture.
5. Top with retro Christmas cake figurines.
For the Christmas Wreath Cake:
1. Roll the green icing into a sausage long enough to go around the top edge of the cake for the wreath base.
2. Pipe spiky foliage all over the icing to create a green leafy design.
3. Place all your decorations around the wreath to finish.
For the Penguin Christmas Cake:
Note - this cake does not need to be covered in white fondant icing, only marzipan
1. Follow the steps above for covering a cake in fondant icing, put use the black ready to roll icing instead. Keep the offcuts to make the penguins wings and eyes.
2. Next, roll out the white and orange icing. Cut out the face shape from the white icing and the feet from the orange icing using a sharp knife.
3. Take a small amount of the white royal icing and carefully stick the cut out face to the centre of the cake and the feet to the bottom of the covered cake.
4. With the remaining orange icing, form a small triangular beak and stick to the centre of the face using royal icing.
5. For the wings, make 2 balls of the black icing trimmings and pinch into a 3D wing shape (don’t use too much or the wings will become too heavy and will be hard to stick into place).
6. Attach the wings to the sides of the cake with more royal icing.
7. Roll out the remaining black icing and cut small circles for the penguin's eyes. Stick these onto the face and pipe a small amount of white royal icing on top to create eyeballs if desired.
8. Optional - finally, add some food colouring to the remaining white royal icing and pipe a bow onto the penguin. You can also brush pink dust onto the cheeks of the penguin.