icing/marzipan-ing my first christmas cake

spaghetti_monster

Hi all!

My first christmas cake is busy maturing and soaking up all the booze I've been feeding it...... and I'm now starting to think about the decorating.

I'm in Holland, where it's sometimes a bit of a project to find baking ingredients. They are very into marzipan - I see a lot of marzipan figures/fun shapes etc but so far no packets of plain marzipan.
I'm going to go on an ingredient-finding mission but was wondering how easy it is to make your own marzipan???? That would stand up to being rolled out and moulded on the cake???

Then there's the icing. My favourite is the kind that stays a bit soft and doesn't taste like the plain icing sugar+water stuff. Is that royal icing??? Can this also be made at home? (trying to work out what this is called in Dutch might also be more of a challenge!)

Thanks!

purpleivy

There are some bars of marzipan in our Lidl, sort of log shapes with the sweets and Christmas stuff. Some have chocolate on them and some don't,

I have a friend who always makes her own marzipan. I suspect it isn't as easy to roll, but it's covered by icing any way.

Sounds like you might need to make Royal icing, but put a little glycerine in to keep it a bit softer. My mum did this after she carved herself up one christmas with hard royal icing!

spaghetti_monster

Thanks Purpleivy!

We have a Lidl here, so I'll check that out and also was thinking of asking in a bakery or something. Especially glycerine might take some seeking out - but definitely want the icing soft!

chrisbethany

Hi Alex

Don't know if you know of these - forgive me if I'm telling you something you already know -

Remember to turn the cake upside down, so you have a nice flat surface. If the bottom (was the top) is bumpy just trim to make flatter. If the outside of the cake doesn't meet the board, fill with a 'sausage' of marzipan. Fill any holes made by dried fruit falling out with tiny bits of marzipan first. I use apricot jam spread over the cake to make marzipan and then icing stick. To measure the right size of marzipan/icing I measure the top of the cake and down the sides with a piece of thread so you know you've rolled out enough. If a round cake, flatten m/i on the top and then down the sides. With a square cake, flatten the m/i on the top, then down the corners and you can then 'tease' the covering down the flat sides. Press in along the bottom edge with a palette knife, pushing it right into the cake, and then fold back to give a sharp line and trim off. Hope this makes sense, and good luck!

Chris

spaghetti_monster

Thankyou very much Chris - all these details are really good to know (especially as we've now been invited to a christmas dinner on the 24th where everyone is looking forward to the aforementioned cake, so the pressure is on!)

I was surfing this morning and found this:
http://www.cookuk.co.uk/cake/recipe_christmas-cake_marzipan.htm

With the pictures and everything, quite good for a beginner I think

snipzychick

alex_w wrote: »

Thankyou very much Chris - all these details are really good to know (especially as we've now been invited to a christmas dinner on the 24th where everyone is looking forward to the aforementioned cake, so the pressure is on!)

I was surfing this morning and found this:
http://www.cookuk.co.uk/cake/recipe_christmas-cake_marzipan.htm

With the pictures and everything, quite good for a beginner I think

Thanks very much for this, I have 2 cakes to marzipan and ice, and i too am a beginner, so this will be really handy

JulieM

A light dusting of icing sugar on the worktop and rolling pin makes it easier to roll out the marzipan.

spaghetti_monster

Has anyone ever made their own marzipan?

JulieM

My mother in law used to make her own, though I didn't think it tasted any better than bought marzipan. It's mainly ground almonds and sugar, delia smith has a recipe.

Bunny200

Just did my square cake using the website above, never done it before and without being corny it was a piece of cake!! Now I've got some marzipan left over which I've put into a sealed bag but does anyone know long it will keep for? I suppose it will dry out eventually. My OH likes dates stuffed with marzipan and I've got the dates but I wasn't going to do them til xmas week, do you think this lump will last til then? Can I add water to it to stop it drying out? Thanks

Bunny200

P.S. What should I do with the cake now? Should it be covered with foil or left open? I can put a big tuperware box over it to keep the dust off? Whats the best?