Christmas Cake Decorations

[justhereforchristmas]

There are only a few in my family who eat fruit cake so I plan on buying one (ssshhhh), but would still like to decorate it. How far in advance can I make the cake topper decorations?

Depends what you are making them from. What sort of thing are you making? Last year I made a sprig of mistletoe including berries. I used florist paste (gumpaste) - you can roll it out really thin (great for realistic-looking leaves) and it dries very hard. You can make those weeks in advance.

If you're making fondant toppers using either sugarpaste mixed with tylose/gum trag or flower paste (already has the tylose mixed in), you can make them now & store in a cardboard cake box somewhere cool. As long as you don't store it in Tupperware or in the fridge, it'll be fine.

Thank you both. I am thinking of fondant type berries and leaves, so it is good to know i can do them in advance and store them in a cardboard cake box.

4forksake: what would happen to them in Tupperware? Would this act as a bit of a humidifier and melt them?

Yes, they'd go all sticky, same if you put them in the fridge. A small cake box would be fine to keep them in. Just keep the lid on to keep the dust off them!