Christmas Cake - icing help please

[driftingintheair]

I made Mary Berry’s Christmas Cake a while ago and did the marzipan yesterday (pre-made, Sainsbury’s). It said to put apricot jam and then the marzipan so that’s what I did.

I’ve made this MB several times before and always followed her recipe for the icing but this time I am using Sainsbury’s ready-rolled white icing instead. My question is that the icing says to put apricot jam on the cake then the icing but is it ok to put the jam on again on top of the marzipan?

I have realised that I probably bought the wrong icing, but Sainsbury’s didn’t have any ready-made royal icing so I thought I had bought the right one…maybe not?!

The cake is for FIL and DS (who is really making the cake with my supervision) wanted to have a smooth cake this year rather than the snowy-looking one that MB’s recipe is.

I just wet the marzipan slightly when I put the icing on to help it stick. Brush some water on!

I find the icing sticks to the marzipan with no jam or anything. You have reminded me to buy apricot jam - thank you!

Just dampen the marzipan with some water to help the icing stick

The jam is just helping the 2 layers stick together.
As others have said, a tiny bit of jam or water will do the job, but equally, if you just go for it with nothing, everything will be just fine.

Or dampen with vodka if you have any about.

You could use egg white.

I just brush the marzipan with water. Fondant good for a smooth finish, I find even if I try really hard and use my 'icing plane' kind of thing I still can't get royal super smooth.

I've dampened with amaretto!

I hope you tested it first to make sure it hadn’t gone off. A small glass and a few biscotti should do the trick.

Alcohol is ideal for brushing on the marzipan to stick the fondant, if you don't want to use some then cool boiled water is fine, don't soak it just dampen it.

I always stick marzipan with marmalade, boil it up and sieve out any peel, can't be bothered buying a pot of apricot jam for one use.

Too late now but if you were doing the smooth rather than the snowy look it helps to turn the cake upside down before marzipan to use the bottom as a nice flat top. The secret to smooth fondant is smooth marzipan and the secret to that is a smooth cake to start with, otherwise it's like trying to plaster a crooked wall straight!