Christmas cake icing - no marzipan but want snowy effect

[Dowhatyoudowell]

I’ve made a Christmas cake but we all dislike marzipan so this year I’d like to try icing without it.

I like the effect on this Mary Berry cake which she does with jam, then marzipan and Royal Icing. Do you think it would work with just the jam and Royal icing?

I dont think you'd need the jam, it's for sticking the marzipan on, i think the issue might be the icing discolouring from the cake without the protective layer of marzipan but that might not be a problem if it's not stored for too long. What I would do in your shoes would be put jam, then a layer of fondant icing instead of marzipan, then the royal icing on top for the snowy peak effect, the fondant would stop crumbs and jam messing up your royal icing. Would be very sweet though!

Above advice is great as you could get seepage from jam

Another option would be to make your own almond paste - it might be the almond extract in marzipan that you dislike; I don’t add any to my almond paste so my marzipan-hating DH likes it! It sounds like a faff but it’s basically just ground almonds, sugar and egg mixed together.

As pp said, the jam is to stick the marzipan on so you wouldn't need it. The marzipan also gives you a smooth surface for icing. If you don't want marzipan, how about a layer of fondant (sugar paste) icing which you can use royal icing on top of? It'd be incredibly sweet with two layers of icing but it might work. Or just use marzipan and peel it off, that's what my dad has done for years!

We don't like marzipan so when MIL made our wedding cake she made orange flavoured paste rather than almond marzipan, she used orange extract I believe. Could that be an option? I imagine it would go lovely with a Christmas cake.

You could crumb coat the cake with a thin layer buttercream and place in the fridge to firm up rather than using fondant before using the Royal icing.