Friday, December 24, 2010

It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas!


Finally beginning to feel a little Christmassy. All the last-minute preparations are well underway and we are awaiting the safe arrival of my in-laws. I've mentioned before that it will be strange having my first Christmas away from 'my' family but I've really enjoyed planning our own festivities and deciding what we'll eat over the next few days. On the other hand, we've be fairly shocked at how the shopping bills have added up and I now look at my mother's Christmasses with a whole new level of appreciation!

I iced my Christmas cake last night and, have to say, am quite pleased with the results. I've probably only iced one or two other cakes in my life so I don't think this is too bad for an amateur! It is a very simple yet bold design. I can't find any subtle pins, so you'll have to excuse the safety pin that is currently holding the bow in place in these photos.

Here's how I did it...

I turned my mature cake upside down onto a cake board to give me a flat surface on the top. I then filled in the gap at the bottom with 'sausages' of marzipan. Using warm apricot jam as the glue I then filled in any major 'holes' in the surface with little balls of marzipan which I then smoothed to give and even-ish surface. Next I rolled out a large piece of marzipan and covered the whole cake, trimming the edges to fit.


I left the marzipan overnight to dry out a little and then covered with fondant icing, glued on with warm apricot jam. I used my handy 'smoothing' tool to smooth over any cracks in the surface (thought there are still a few on the corners!). Next I rolled out red fondant icing and cut out the snowflake shapes which I stuck in position with a little water. A piece of red ribbon completed the cake!


I'm looking forward to reading about everyone's Christmas feasts over the next few days and wish you all a very Happy Christmas!

And just because I can't resist, here is a snowy picture of my rather handsome little furry friend. He's wishes you a Happy Christmas too (he told me so!).

3 comments:

Lisa@ButteryBooks said...

That cake looks amazing! You could have put it under the Christmas tree.

Lynn said...

Love your cake - so much more professional looking than my rather dismal effort :-(
And please...as a recent puppy owner, more photos of the lovely Sinbad. Then I can show him to my 2 and tell them that that's what they should be doing!!!!!

Maggie said...

The cake looks fabulous, I love the red and white theme.