Icing a christmas cake for the first time - help!!

[sybiltherednosedreindeer]

With the help of several mumsnetters I have managed to make a christmas cake for the very first time this year. Now however, I need to ice it. Any hints and tips gratefully received.

Having got this far it would be nice if it looks ok on the big day.

Bump for you
Are you doing marzipan and icing? If you are doing that you need to get the marzipan on today.
Are you using royal icing or fondant icing. That can be done on Christmas Eve.

I like the simple approach. Just marzipan and white royal icing (buy ready-rolled stuff if a beginner or short of time like me) and buy a really nice velvet bow. Then look in your charity shops for old fashioned cake stand to place it on. I got a pretty thing for 50p. Looks simple but IMHO, beautiful!

I thought I should do marzipan and fondant icing? Do I really have to marzipan it today? Will have to wait until dh gets home from work. Does the icing go on straight away after that or do I wait?

Sorry, I have no idea really and need a bit of hand holding

Are you marzipanning the cake too?

If so, you need to brush the cake with a thin jam to make the marzipan stick.

Roll out marzipan to required thickness. I then use the cake tin as a guide to cut around so that I get the right size disc for the top of the cake.

Re-roll marzipan and cut out strip to wrap around the sides of the cake (this often ends up being in two pieces for me, doesn't matter as you can squish it together/smooth the edges together to give it a better finish once on the cake).

You can buy ready rolled icing which is fab. You simply unroll and plonk on top of cake .

Otherwise, you can buy a pack of ready made icing (sold in similar pack to marzipan) which you roll out yourself and drape over the cake.

Alternatively, whip up the icing to look like snow on your cake - much easier than trying to get a smooth finish with royal icing.

I cut out stars from remaining icing and stick on top of cake (just use either a little water as glue or egg white) and then randomly dot around silver balls

Apparently you are supposed to let the marzipan set for a while before applying icing. However, the first year I made my cake, I left everything til the last minute and did it all together. It wasn't a problem

Follow tulpe's instructions re marzipan (presume you have bought some rather than making from scratch). Warm the jam - I use apricot or marmalade as it won't stain as a red jam would and sprinkle some icing sugar on the board so marzipan won't stick to that. It only take about ten minutes to do this. The reason you need to do it asap is that the marzipan needs to dry out a bit before the final icing goes on so that it doesn't stain the white icing.
(But don't worry, many many people end up doing all this a few minutes before tea time on Christmas Day!)

We do this...

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4827/zesty-orange-marzipan

and then a few days later this...

whisk eggs until you see bubbles in them. Add about 600g of icing sugar. Squeeze a bit of lemon in.

Paste it on thick - wait ten minutes for it to set a bit then use the back of your spoon to rough up the icing to look like snow!

Once all is dry -
Tie a ribbon around it! (This year we pinned a picture of a Christmas tree dd did at school on the top too)

Darrr daaaaaah!!!

The whole look we go for is to make it as very 'homemade looking' and nostalgic as possible and not professional or 'just so' at all at all at all - so for a first timer it might be a safe option for going about it!

This is fantastic! Thank you all so much for your help. I will attempt to do the marzipan tonight and then the icing on thursday. Cheers!