Christmas Candy Cake

Friday, October 7th, 2011

Jane Asher is back with another bespoke cake for all of you to try out for this Christmas and she has included two options, for people just starting out as well as those more advanced in the art of cake decoration.

We are going to try it out here at The Source and we hope you do too. Send us in a photo of your finished cake and we will upload it to this article.

Ingredients

8" round fruit cake
Sieved apricot jam
Icing sugar for dusting
750g marzipan
1 kg red roll-out icing
1 kg white roll-out icing
200g green roll-out icing
200g blue roll-out icing
Christmas Red food colour paste
500g royal icing
200g packet of white petal paste
1 pot of mini coloured chocolate buttons

You will also need:

14” cake board (we used a drum)
Edible Glaze spray
Red Pearl spray
1 pot of silver glitter

Optional but recommended:

A small amount of gum tragacanth
Veining tool
Small palette knife
Side smoother
Edible glue
A little white fat

Procedure

Step 1:

With a sharp serrated knife, round off the sides and top edges of the cake to make a domed shape, adding excess pieces to the top to add height.
Brush the cake all over with sieved jam, loosened with a little hot water if necessary. Dust the work surface with icing sugar to prevent sticking, and knead the marzipan until soft.
Roll it out until it’s a large enough to cover the cake generously, and lay it over the top.
Smooth down with your hands or a side smoother and trim away any excess with a knife.

Step 2:

Knead the red roll-out icing until soft, and gradually add Christmas Red food colouring until you have a richer colour for the cake and sweets.
Roll out 750g until it’s large enough to generously cover the cake, keeping the remaining 250g in a food bag or in food wrap for later.
Dampen the marzipan surface of the cake with a little water and lay the icing on top, smoothing with your hands or a side smoother and trimming away excess at the base with a knife.
Spray with a light coating of red pearl spray, followed by a generous coat of edible glaze to add lots of shine. Place the cake on the board.

Step 3:

Divide the white roll-out icing into 2 pieces – 450g for the snow topping and 550g for the board.
Knead and roll out the smaller piece and cut into a splash shape with a sharp knife.

Step 4:

Dampen the underneath of the white shape with a little water and lay it on top of the cake, smoothing over with your hands.

Step 5:

Roll out the remaining white icing into a long strip.
Dampen the board around the cake with a little water and lay the icing strip on top, trimming away the excess around the edge.
Make up some royal icing, and with a small pallet knife, add some to the top of the cake and the board, stippling to make a snow effect.

Step 6:

To make the sweets:
Knead a little gum tragacanth into the remaining red icing and to the blue andgreen icing to help the sweets hold their shape.
Mould small pieces of each colour into sweet shapes, adding separate pieces to each end to make the ends of the wrappers, attaching them with a little edible glue and marking creases with a veining tool or back of a knife.
Set the sweets aside for a while to dry.

Step 7:

For the candy canes: divide the petal paste in half, and colour one piece red by kneading into it some Christmas red food colouring. A little white fat on your hands will help to keep the petal paste soft.
Knead and soften the remaining white petal paste. Roll out thin sausage shapes of both colours, dampen with a little water, and twist them together.
Keep rolling them once they are twisted until they are quite smoothly entwined, then trim both ends and bend the top into a candy cane shape. Set these aside to dry for at least 12 hours.

Step 8:

Once they are dry, lightly spray the sweets with edible glaze and sprinkle with silver glitter.
Allow to dry, then position them on and around the cake, securing them with a little royal icing.
Add the candy canes, again attaching them with royal icing.
Finally, add lots of coloured chocolate buttons all over the cake and board. Stick red ribbon around the edge of the cake board with a little sticky paste.