Christmas Cake Icing Recipe | Odlums (2024)

FAQs

What is the easiest way to ice a Christmas cake? ›

To cover a Christmas cake with marzipan, you'll need the cake, some marzipan and a glaze to help the marzipan stick to the cake. Apricot glaze is popular, but marmalade makes a great alternative as the orange flavour echoes the flavours in the Christmas cake.

There's no hard and fast rule about when to ice your cake, but it's best to do it between 24 hours and a week ahead of the big day.

Always cover a fruitcake with marzipan before covering it with fondant or royal icing to keep moisture in the cake and stop oils from seeping into the outside covering and causing discolouration. If you are covering a fruitcake with marzipan, use boiled, sieved apricot jam to stick it to the cake not buttercream.

I stop feeding my cake a week before I want to marzipan and ice it. Turn the cake upside down as this gives you a perfect flat surface to start with. You then need to sieve the apricot jam so it is totally smooth as you don't want lumps of apricots under your marzipan and icing.

Decorating a Christmas cake without marzipan or traditional icing. To decorate your Christmas Cake without Marzipan you can either fill and ice a cake with the buttercream, or you top the cake with the fruit and nut crust.

Wrap the cake in greaseproof paper or baking parchment then wrap it in kitchen foil. Store cake in a second layer of foil or in an airtight tin. You can repeat the feeding process every couple of weeks for three or four feeds. However, if the cake makes the work surface damp, appears wet or stodgy, discontinue feeding.

What alcohol should you use? Strong, flavourful spirits with a high ABV are ideal for feeding fruitcakes. You can use rum, brandy or whisky for spice, or if you like citrus flavours, try an orange liqueur. Cherry brandy and amaretto will also work well if you prefer these.

If the icing is applied thinly then it should take 4 to 6 hours to dry completely (though the surface will be touch dry quite quickly) but if it is a very thick layer (such as "snowcene" icing on a christmas cake) then it can take a few days to dry completely.

Covering a cake with marzipan

Once you have marzipanned the cake, you need to allow time for it to dry, for at least 12 hours and up to 2 days, before covering with icing. Home-made marzipan takes a little longer to dry out than the ready-made variety.

Do you wrap Christmas cake after marzipan? ›

Otherwise the oils from the marzipan can seep into the icing, causing discolouration. As you need the marzipan to dry out, we do not recommend wrapping the cake at this point or storing in an airtight container.

Wrap it up tight

Once your cake has cooled and has been removed from its tin, carefully wrap it in a double layer of plastic wrap. Make sure this is well sealed, then wrap it is a double layer of foil. Place the cake in a well sealed container and store in a dark, cool and dry place.

Chill your cake layers for at least 2 hours, or better, overnight. If you've made your frosting ahead, make sure it's at room temperature before you start. A large offset spatula and some parchment paper are small investments that will pay dividends.

Wrap the cake in greaseproof paper or baking parchment then wrap it in kitchen foil. Store cake in a second layer of foil or in an airtight tin.

Wedding cakes are fruitcakes, they are frosted with buttercream.

In the absence of whole glacé fruits, decorate with a mix of dried apricots, figs, nuts and glacé cherries, then paint with a glaze of shimmering apricot jam for a simpler, rustic-looking cake.