Too late to ice Christmas cake?

[MrsJaneyLloydFoxe]

Was very organised and made my first ever Christmas cake back in October. Have ignored it in the cupboard and haven’t been ‘feeding’ it. Will it be horrible??

also, I think I’m too late to ice with marzipan which is fine and we all hate the taste BUT how can I make it look nice? Can I do I snowy scene without the roll out icing? Never tried that ready roll stuff and scared to try I. Care it looks awful.

any advice welcome please! TIA

I iced mine on Sunday with bought Marzipan and Royal icing which I made so I hope it's OK.

Why are you too late to marzipan? I haven’t even made my cake yet ( it’s a lighter fruitcake). I will almond paste it and ice on Christmas Eve. If you make royal icing you can make snowy peaks on it before it hardens

Im marzipanning and icing mine this week, always do it about now so def not too late.

There’s plenty of time to ice it.
Yes you can make your own icing but the ready roll works fine and with a bit of care gives an excellent finish.

You'll be fine - Marzipanned and iced mine yesterday. I'd be only slightly worried about not having fed it and probably give it a good drink of whiskey 😂

You'll be fine. I always forget to feed mine (although there's quite a bit of booze in the recipe).

I'm also very impressed you're icing it now... there's so much other good food around over Christmas the cake isn't usually cut until nearer new year so I often ice it in between.

Last Christmas it didn't get iced until epiphany....

No reason why it should be horrible, @MrsJaneyLloydFoxe - but I’d certainly take it out and feed it some whisky, or whatever you soaked your fruit in.

None of my family particularly care for icing (or marzipan) so I won’t be adding either. (I also cut down considerably on the amount of sugar in the cake itself.)

Do you actually want icing? You could just as easily decorate it with ribbon / tinsel / candles etc.

marzipan and leave to dry overnight then ice. it will be lovely I am sure

I only did mine on Sunday! Shop bought, pre rolled marzipan and then u follow Delia smiths royal icing recipe (egg whites, icing sugar and glycerine). It’s a gorgeous glossy white and you can make it into little peaks so it looks like snow!

I'll (shop bought) marzipan tonight then (home made) royal icing in rough snowy peaks on Thurs night. I use Delia's icing recipe and it always works a treat.

Mine has a topping of nuts and cherries. It was added before baking but pretty sure you can add now.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/jewelled-fruit-nut-seed-cake

www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/fruit-recipes/fruit-nut-topping-for-christmas-cake/

Here you go

I'm planning on marzipanning and icing mine on Saturday. Definitely not too late! I haven't 'fed' mine either but it'll be fine. (The most important thing is not to have overcooked it in the first place to avoid the top being peppered with burnt raisins...!)

I never do my icing until a few days before Xmas. I made the cake in November (I feed it with tea rather than booze) and usually ice it so we can cut into it on Xmas eve.

I'm allergic to marzipan, so just ice it with apricot jam and ready rolled fondant icing on Christmas Eve. Nobody in our house really likes icing, so we put a ribbon around the cake and only ice the top.

Excellent! Thanks all.

I read somewhere that marzipan needed to dry out before you ice over it, so that’s why I assumed I was too late.
So I think I will do a light layer of apricot jam (will feed cake before with cognac in a last ditch attempt to make it more moist) and then shall I just do royal icing over the apricot jam? Snowy peaks and then tie a ribbon round it? Can’t be bothered with fondant as I don’t think I will get it smooth enough.

So I have done the apricot glaze - do I need to leave this to dry before the royal icing? For how long?

The jam acts as a glue for the icing

You dont royal ice on apricot jam - put the marzipan over it then royal ice over that. I dont bother with jam any more - just marzipan then fondant icing. I dont wait for the marzipan to dry out either.

I think if you were icing it way in advance of christmas you would dry out the marzipan otherwise the oils might eventually show through the icing.

Thanks I’m not using marzipan though on advice further up thread

@MrsJaneyLloydFoxe We dont like marzipan so today at 1pm I coated the cake with softened apricot jam and put fondant icing on it! it is now on the dining table covered with a dish towel.