how are you decorating your Christmas cake this year?

[workatemylife]

Christmas Cake made (square shape), and put away, and probably won't be decorated till Christmas Eve. Can you give me some inspiration on the icing? Last year we went for plain white icing, with a star shape made up of lots of little circles of fondant icing. Fairly easy, looked okay, DD was able to help. I could do the same again, but would be as happy with some royal icing / piping / snowy fluff. Just a bit stuck at the moment. Trying not to obsess either!

[RosieBloom32]

.

[storminabuttercup]

I'm new to it all but I'm thinking stars on white icing. I've cheated and bought my cake as I'm completely renovating two rooms including the kitchen and the house is like a tip

[andadietcoke]

Could you do it like a parcel? White icing plus one pack of ready to roll in any colour (i did pale blue last year). Do two wide strips in a cross first, then add the ribbon 'tails' from the middle of the intersection at angles, cutting a 'v' from the ends and not laying them flat so they look more ribbony.
Then take another long strip the same thickness any fold the ends into the middle, pinching them together. Play with the loops so they look softer - squash them a bit. Last of all cover the join with a small bit of icing.

Hope that makes sense. I can't find a picture of my cake from last year - it's a bigger version of the green and yellow cupcake I did here though -

instagram.com/p/glXFfejIpZ/

Actually, they're all easy - let me know if you need instructions for any of the others!!

[ElfontheShelfIsWATCHINGYOUTOO]

Was just talking about this with DH, as we are very proud we have made our first ever cake, cake virgins.

Isn't it traditionally that peaky thick icicing?

I might get this and stick these in.

www.amazon.co.uk/The-Nutcracker-Christmas-Cupcake-Kit/dp/1614544484/ref=sr_1_12?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1384195162&sr=1-12&keywords=meri%20meri&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21

[Dogmatix34]

Love your cakes andadietcoke. They look fantastic

[storminabuttercup]

Andadietcoke, those are fantastic!!

[RosieBloom32]

I need to find the easiest way to ice it. I normally use Supercook microwave royal icing and fork it up to look like snow.

But I can't find that icing this year.

[Methe]

I'm doing ours navy blue with white stars and the 4 small ones I'm doing for family are going to be white with holly leaves and berries on.

[PennySillin]

Last year I did this This is not a photo of my cake btw it's the picture I used for inspiration but it was quite straight forward and it looked just like it. This year I am going for this

[Honsandrevels]

I'm doing royal icing and plastic deer, maybe a few fir trees here and there. Royal icing is much more forgiving for the slapdash icer.

[RosieBloom32]

Honsandrevels- Are you using ready rolled?

[AnneEyhtMeyer]

I'm going for royal icing snow - while fondant looks very nice I just don't think it tastes good with fruit cake.

[RosieBloom32]

I want royal icing snow. How do I create it?

[MrsLintott]

I'm doing these, all designed for speed.

www.facebook.com/ebmf.christmascakes

I saw a nice one on ocado that had a tree made out of buttons but I don't think it was nice enough to go to the trouble of getting a button icing stamp iykwim

My fave is royal icing with plastic deer etc

[CherryMonster]

not sure yet. last year i did red icing with white snowflakes all over. this year will be red green and gold but not sure on design yet.

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

Ooh Penny I love the blue cake with the tree- very nice.

I haven't decided on mine.
I'm doing 2 decorated and 2 plain (I've cooked four 6x6 cakes) .
Delia marzipan and royal icing.
One plain/one iced for us
Same to take to my parents at New Year.

Plain cake with Wensleydale cheese

I might do green icing cut into holly and ivy leaves and arranged in a circle.
With gold candles.

[imofftolisdoonvarna]

Oh holy crap some of your cakes are amazing! I am a total Xmas cake virgin but made my first one a few weeks ago and I think it's ok so want to make a good job of it, but don't want to be too ambitious a d for it to look rubbish.

I know nothing at all about icing:
What is royal icing?
Is it the same as the ready rolled stuff?
As a total cake novice what do you think would be the best type of icing to go for? I can't see me getting that really smooth icing right at all, but I love the picture of the cake with the tree made out of stars. Also love the present idea but again it might be too much (has anyone seen the link where people try to copy stuff they have seen on pinterest and it erm, doesn't quite look the same!)
Am thinking I should play it safe with the snow leaky icing as you can't go wrong with that can you?!

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

Royal icing is egg white, icing sugar and lemon juice whipped up until stiff . You can smooth it over, rough ice and pipe it.
It'll dry out (you can put glycerine in too stop it getting too hard but it goes a bit polystyreney)
It's difficult to give exact quantities because the eggs vary so much, but if it's too soft , keep beating it rather than add too much icing sugar.

Roll out is soft and flexible, then dries firmer. Some taste a bit plasticy IMO, but if you roll it out thin it's ok .
I roll on silicone paper, so I don't need too much cornflour, upturn onto the cake and smooth down. You need to paint the marzipan with boiled water or vodka for it to stick.

The star cake looks lovely doesn't it?
I'd do a smooth royal icing top , rough royal icing on the side and the stars in roll out icing.

[imofftolisdoonvarna]

Thanks 70.

I'm definitely going to keep an eye on this thread.

[dementedma]

Royal icing is much better and you make little peaks with the back of a knife which hides any lumps and bumps. Ready to roll tastes pretty vile IMO.
Here's a cool decorating tip. Line a tray with tinfoil strips. On each strip put a line of glacier mints, or glacier fruit sweets. Put in hot oven and watch like a hawk. In a few seconds the sweets will melt and run. Take out of the oven And just before they start to harden again, curl the strips of foil into semicircles. Be careful,melted sweets will burn like hell and stick to the skin! When cold peel off the foil and place sugar curls on cake with a small tea light lit and glowing through. This very pretty. You can altwrnatively spread out the melted sweets and smash into spiky shards when cool for a funky look if coloured, or a cold, icy look if minty.
The sweets will start to soften and melt though, so do as late as possible before serving.

[CiderwithBuda]

Some great ideas on here. Penny - love your tree made from stars.

One year I did white ready roll and cut a tree shape out of green ready rook and decorated the tree with silver balls.

This year I was thinking of white stars and then I have some edible silver and gold stars that I might sprinkle over the top. Silver ribbon around the edge.

[ElfontheShelfIsWATCHINGYOUTOO]

Royal Icing must be what I am thinking of too as you do not have to be expert to make it smooth as you dont need to as it will look like nice snow

[Rockinhippy]

I think mine are going to be deep shocking pink, on a same colour board, with gold painted mixed size snowflakes kind of roughly cascading up the sides & down over the board & a few snow flakes & a sparkly gold star on wires so that they hover in the air above the cakes. Then for our big one I will make a stylised gold figure set to sit under the stars, maybe the wise men & a camel, or something, not certain yet - other smaller gift cakes will have wrapped boxes, Xmas crackers etc all in gold as the main toppers.

I know this because I started this last year, git as far as the marzipan & ice, but we all took so ill none if it was finished & I daren't handle food the state I was in - DH was taking Xmas cake to work for lunch up until July

DD mentioned midnight blue fir hers, no idea what though

[Honsandrevels]

I've bought the ready made royal icing in tubs before but if you have a mixer of some sort it is easy to make from scratch.

[workatemylife]

fantastic ideas - thank you! I think the star cake we made last year was a bit like the Christmas tree one up above, only with a star shape centrepiece. It did look really effective but the edges were a bit scrappier than in the photo on here. The idea of a parcel sounds nice, and not too tricky. No decision yet, but lots of things to think about