4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[freddie]

Right then you lot, and the clever ones who do pictures, (thats YOU, ANH!!!) lets have some lovely xmas cake dec ideas for us all to "reproduce"... Help always gratefully received

DD and I are doing some truffles from her Usborne book to pile up on a couple that need to go this week(well, tomorrow!), but I'm lacking inspiration for the other 5;

pretty please!!

[SarahJo]

I have cut my large square cake into 4, and am icing in plain white, with white stars, and a gold star ribbon round the bottom of each. Have done this so -

 

a) I can have some cake before the outlaws come on christmas day.

b) A neighbour can have their own reasonably sized cake.

c) Simply because it seemed like a good idea at the time , and I can sample it 1st before sharing

 

I cannot upload pics - but can send to Kate to do for me .

 

Have to ice them yet though - waiting for marzipan to dry.

 

BTW - do you ice straight onto marzi' or do you do some more jam so it sticks

[..lay a little egg for me]

I go for the ultra easy approach: make fondant icing so I can roll it out as I am hopeless at getting smooth royal icing; then I use a Christmas tree-shaped cookie cutter to make an impression in the surface of the icing and some of that 'writing icing' to write Merry Christmas. That's it!

 

I think you do need jam/something sticky to make sure the icing sticks to marzipan if using fondant icing but no need with royal icing. Correct me someone before I start icing my cake!!

[Chook n Boo Mum]

Royal ice straight on to marzipan, no extra jam, it will stick nicely, use plain water to stick rollout on. It should be allowed to dry though between layers. Having said that, I marzipaned 9 baked bean tin cakes last Wednesday afternoon, and the Cubs iced them on Wednesday evening!

 

I have a bowl of packet royal icing ready to slap onto the last cake on the table, but haven't got round to marzipaning it yet! Best I get that done!

 

For most of my cakes I've done roll-out base with cutouts of stars or Christmas trees and some also have silver balls stuck on with icing. Some are painted with edible dust stuff, some aren't!

 

Will try & get a pic of some of mine later....after I've done the Christmas cards which are on the table, before DH comes home to collect them ( ) and administered soothing words to DD who's in my bed with a raging temperature and a bucket!!

 

Sha x

[Cinnamon]

Mine is marzipaned & drying out.

Then I am royal icing it to look peaked & snowy, as that how I like it to look.

I then am sprinkling a little gold edible glitter over it, & have a nice gold star decoration for the top.

 

I am new to this christmas cake decorating lark too, & this was the easiet thing I could find to do, as we all dislike fondant icing.

[craftyhunnypie]

When you have marzipanned it, do you wrap it in cling film or anything? How do you store it before icing?

Need to marzipan mine this afternoon.

I might use my chicken cookie cutter on my icing. Or make some penguins.

 

Emma.x

[Cinnamon]

I bought a super large cake box by Lock & Lock which has a handle & the top comes off so you can get to the cake easliy.

All the stuff I read said not to wrap it after marzipanning......

 

http://www.johnlewis.com/230214311/Product.aspx

 

I got it for £12 a couple of weeks ago.....................

[Lydia]

No need to wrap it up Emma, just leave it somewhere on a board and let the marzipan dry out naturally.

 

If you're using sugarpaste you can put that on to the marzipan after just 24 hours. If you using royal icing leave it for at least 3 days to ensure it's completely dry.

 

Quick tip No 1 - fruit cake can sometimes react with a foil covered cake board, especially if left for a period of time. Therefore put a sheet of greeseproof cake on the board undernearth your cake first. Sponge cake will be fine.

 

Quick tip No 2 - to stop your sugarpaste from sticking when rolling it out use a half and half mixture of icing sugar and cornflour. To ironout any cracks in sugarpaste use a small piece of leftover sugarpaste dipped in a small amount of the icing sugar/cornflour mixture. Gently smooth over the crack with the sugarpaste and it will slowly disappear.

 

Quick tip No 3 - ensure your royal icing is free from air bubbles before you use it, especially if you want a smooth finish. To get rid of air bubbles use a pallette knife to pad down the icing in a bowl before use.

 

Good luck with your cakes.

[freddie]

if yr marzipan is dry, then brush over with the tiniest hint of water, to get the roll ice to stick, and take all yr rings/bracelets off before you start smoothing it down, or it gets a ploughed look(voice of experience here!!)

for around the base, if you make two different coloured roll ice "sausages", good and long, more than the length to go around the base of the cake, and then twist these together(like one of those sweet marshmallow things), this can wrap the base of the cake and hide all manner of mistakes!!

top wise, what about chocolate ivy leaves, they're easy, quick and effective!!

pick some nice ivy leaves, make sure they're clean and dry. melt some good dark chocolate, dip the leaves in, shiny side to be coated, and put on some greaseproof to dry. go and do something else for a while. When they're dry, peel the leaf off carefully, and there you have it, a pretty Xmassy decoration. if any break, eat them!! Bung them onto the cake, and you're done.I cant do piccies, but I'll try with the teenager later

[Lesley]

I use boiled water brushed over dry marzipan to stick the icing to it.

 

Be careful if using cornflour mixed with icing sugar - it does give a lovely finish but can cause fermentation! Best to use it as near to the day you want to eat it as possible. If you're icing the cake a long way ahead then it's best to use just icing sugar.

[SarahJo]

Yay - fantastic tips - thanks all. I am going to use water (boiled) before icing my cake, not another skim of apricot jam.

 

Might do mine on wednesday - then tuck into one of the smaller 1/4's - must sample before anyone else gets one as a gift, or outlaws try

[Ain't Nobody Here]

I'm not much of a baker and only managed this with advice from the Home Economics teacher where I work. This year's will be a poor effort as she's been on sick leave .

 

Can't find a photo of the one before this, but it had cone shaped xmas trees - a good tip was to brush egg white with a fine paintbrush in loops round the tree then sprinkle hundreds & thousands which stick to look like tinsel or lights .

 

[BeckyBoo]

No tips but I'd be really interested in some decent ideas - I haven't got a clue what I'm going to do with my rather boring looking round fruit cake this year.

Here's what I did last year although not a very good shot....

 

 

 

And can I show you two more cakes I made (not Christmas, but I found the pictures whilst looking for this one)

 

Here's one my Father-in-laws cakes from a couple of years ago...

 

 

And another one, this one weighed about 8lb by the end!!

 

 

Come on everyone, piccies please, I'm without inspiration this year

 

Mrs B

[Egluntyne]

Not in Mrs Bertie's league I'm afraid.

 

[chickencam]

 

Brilliant cakes

 

I don't really like fondant icing so we just have rough snow scenes here with 4 Snowman figures.

[Mrs Frugal]

SarahJo has asked me to upload these photos for her...

 

 

 

 

 

Lovely cakes, SarahJo. I haven't got that far yet .

[SarahJo]

Thanks kate - you are an .

 

The cake with the pink and silver dragees has just been tasted - , yup its good

 

One of the smaller ones I wrapped in cellophane for a neighbour - just need to deliver it now I know they are suitable for consumption .

 

I did not get too elaborate with the decs, as others are clearly more masterful than I. Hence, the "less" look is probably better for my skill as a decorator of cakes .

 

Thanks again Kate

[Mrs Frugal]

No problem, SarahJo . I must get round to decorating mine. Time's running out .

[Egluntyne]

They are lovely SarahJo.

[AMS]

Hello

 

Great cakes everyone. I'm planning to make this lighter fruit cake at the weekend and copy MS's snowflake decoration as well because I have no imagination!!!

 

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/snow-capped-fruitcake?autonomy_kw=snowflake&rsc=rf_result7

 

Alison

[Ain't Nobody Here]

That looks lovely . Please let us know how you get on - I'd love to know how you "cut out a snowflake" . I was hoping for an idiot's guide .

[AMS]

I have a set of snowflake cookie cutters ANH - small medium, large and two miniature cutters for creating intricate snowflake detail.

 

I will probably use icing to pipe the intricate detail rather than the miniature cutters but I'll see how it goes...

[Lesley]

The cakes look lovely Sarah!

[Ain't Nobody Here]

This isn't a Christmas cake but I was so amazed by it I just had to post it here . (I was looking for cakes for the Advent Calendar thread!)

 

[Mrs Frugal]

Oh wow! That is amazing and it looks just like my sewing machine too .