How To Ice A Christmas Cake | Doves Farm | Organic Flours & Food (2024)

FAQs

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

Fruited Christmas Cakes are traditionally covered with marzipan followed by a layer of white icing. You may wish to Feed and Store your Christmas Cake before adding the icing layers. Traditionally the white layer would be royal icing although you could use vegan royal icing or shop bought fondant icing.

The videos below give great tips on how to trim it neatly and create the perfect base for icing your Christmas cake. Leave the Christmas cake covered in marzipan in a cool, dry place. Allow it to dry for at least 24 hours before covering with fondant icing, and at least two days before covering with royal icing.

What is the best alcohol to put in a Christmas cake? A reasonably strong spirit (such as whisky, rum or brandy) with a warm, fiery flavour or a sweet liqueur (such as cherry brandy or amaretto – NOT a cream liqueur) will compliment the flavour of the cake, and help to preserve the cake, so it will keep for longer.

Apply the Royal Icing

Decorate as you wish with silver or gold sugar balls, Christmas ornaments, or other festive decorations. Let the cake dry, uncovered until the icing sets hard, at least overnight or up to three days before serving.

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. Warm the jam slightly and get a pastry brush ready.

It's possible to overfeed your cake, which will make it stodgy and wet. Our advice is to feed it once after it's initially baked, then no more than four times during the maturation period. Try a teaspoonful of whichever alcohol you've chosen before you begin feeding your cake to test its strength.

The popular custom of feeding the cake periodically with small amounts of alcohol can help to keep the cake soft and add extra flavour. This is done using a pointed teaspoon or cake syringe. Lighter spongier fruit cakes, which contain less sugar, can also be fed although they will not keep so long.

Christmas cakes are also commonly made with pudding while a fruit cake uses butter, however there are Christmas cake recipes that do contain butter. The traditional Scottish Christmas cake, also known as the Whisky Dundee, is very popular.

How long do you soak fruit in alcohol for Christmas cake? ›

You can soak the fruit for days (or weeks) by adding alcohol and mixing as you go, allowing the dried fruit to soak up all the liquid. We do this by adding alcohol (or fruit juice or even a mix) bit by bit until the fruit is plump, or you can just soak overnight and add the rest of the alcohol after the cake is baked.

Fruitcake aficionados will tell you that the best fruit cakes are matured – or “seasoned” in fruitcake lingo – for at least three months before they are cut. Seasoning not only improves the flavor of the fruitcake, but it makes it easier to slice.

The lemon juice whitens the royal icing. The royal icing should be light, fluffy, and slightly stiff. You may need to adjust the consistency by adding more egg whites if the icing is too dry or more powdered sugar if it is too wet.

I'd experienced this issue when I thinned my icing with too much water for flooding. The good news on that front is that if you noticed that you'd done it before you start icing a cookie, you can stir in some sifted powdered sugar (or some reserved piping consistency icing if you want some) and recover.

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.

Use some of the icing to stick the meringue icicles carefully around the edge of the cake so they look as if they're dripping down. Arrange the meringue kisses and snowflakes on top of the cake. Push silver and pearl balls into the icing, then dust the cake with a little icing sugar for a snowy effect.

Splodge the warm jam or jelly liberally all over your cake (brush or spread, whatever you like), then just roll out your marzipan (it's helpful if you squish it into a rough circular shape before you start – use a dusting of icing sugar instead of flour) until it's big enough to flop over the cake.

Wedding cakes are fruitcakes, they are frosted with buttercream.