Can you ice Christmas fruit cakes without using marzipan?

[xmascaroltygirl]

Er...

That's it, really!

There was a thread about this about two weeks ago and the general consensus was no. But you're running out of time for marzipanning as it has to "dry out" for a while before you ice over the top. Will try and find thread, hang on.

here

you can in theory but the colour of the fruit cake might bleed through and make the icing look horrid. Its much nicer with marzipan anyway IMO
Is it a nut allergy or something though?

Would a layer of melted white chocolate stop the colour bleeding through?

Thanks! Will check out the link - no, it isn't an allergy, just that none of us can stand the stuff and we end up cutting away half the cake as we find the taste has tainted it.

But my dd1 loves the look of iced "snow scene" cakes with little sugar figures playing on them. And my dd2 has asked Santa for "a very sultana cake, with pink icing and a cherry on the top"... Which is why I had been hoping to ice them.

Melted white chocolate? Hadn't thought of that... wonder if it would work?

Just do 2 layers of icing. You can buy ready rolled icing, it is fab and easy to use, and has the same consistency as marzipan. I'm sure you could use it without marzipan as long as you use 2 layers.

I use 2 layers of that, cut the 2nd layer smaller and cut it wavy and lay it on top of the first. Then you can use writing icing to make icicles hanging round the edge. Grate some of the leftover and sprinkle on top with some silver balls. Plonk santa etc (bought from waitrose) on top and....voila! Takes about an hour. If I was techno -able I would at this point insert a photo!

You could use one layer of the ready roll stuff and then do your frosty icing on top I'm sure.

It was difficult to get the ready rolled stuff this year, always used to get it in Safeway but b**y Morrisins discontinued it. Got it in Asda in the end. Got the wriring icing in Sainsburys.

I had trouble buying a cake this year in Sainsburys with maripan! Sorry don't know how they did it.

I have just decorated mine with different coloured cherries and walnuts (no icing at all) Looks very classy and took me 20 mins.
Could you make a sponge and decorate it with snow type scenes?

I read somewhere that you can warm and sieve apricot jam and spread that over the cake - this seals it so that the oils from cake don't spoil icing... might need to leave it for an hour or 2 to dry before icing

You can make a butter icing as an alternative to marzipan (butter & sugar) - they sell it ready-made in icing shops, or just do it yourself.

I put the royal icing on mine yesterday - didn't quite work as i'd intended, don't think i beat the icing enough, it wasn't quite the stiff peaks that Delia demanded! Still doesn't look too bad, i'll just have to put more effort in on the decorations !

I've just done mine with a layer of fondant icing - allowed to dry overnight - and then the royal icing on top of that ... it looks fine and stuck to the fondant with no problems.

Sounds like I'll have a few options to choose from, then - might go for the butter icing on dd2's "Santa" cake, as the icing is the only bit of it she's likely to eat anyway!

Frootolph, that sounds wonderfully artistic and definitely worth trying as well. Mind you, our main cake is so heavily laced with booze that after a slice or two nobody will notice what it looks like!

If you make the rough icing thick the oil from the cake won't come through. Its not going to have time now! It'll be fine. Enjoy!

Never use marzipan (none of us like it). Just warm apricot jam and spread all over cake. Leave for about 30 minutes to cool (this is when Kids & I make all the icing decoration to go on the cake) then roll out the icing if it's going to be flat, or just spread it on if you want snowy peaks.
Make sure you get plain old apricot jam though. Left it too late one year & had to get apricot conserve. Iced cake in lovely snowy peaks, went out, came back & icing had avalanched all over the cake board - I scrape it back on the top, but the bits of apricot jam made it look like a herd of dogs had been round the christmas tree

The traditional way, as people have mentioned, is to brush warm, sieved apricot jam all over the cake. This acts as a sealant and helps the marzipan to stick. Then a layer of marzipan to seal the cake and stop the colour seeping through into the white icing. It also acts as extra protection from deterioration if you are storing the cake for long periods (as in the old tradition of saving a tier of the wedding cake for a christening cake). Then royal or roll-out icing. If you use roll-out icing you don't leave the marzipan to dry as it won't stick.

The colour takes a long time to come through and if you use the cake up within a few weeks it won't matter if you don't use marzipan. But you will have to be careful icing since the odd crumb will show up if you catch it up in the icing. If you do as one or two people have suggested and put on two layers of icing you will not only get around this problem but also get a smoother, flatter finish.

Hi, There i have iced many off cakes at university without mazpan we use the Apricot jam method and roll icing out cover trim stack if need be or decorate and done