I've overfed the Xmas cake, can I save it?

[kitchenplans]

As per the title. The bottom is soggy and sticky.

I'm sure it will taste delicious, but I'm worried about the colour leaching through to the (fondant) icing.

If I leave it exposed for a few hours (or days?) will it dry out a bit?

I would leave it uncovered and upside down for a day or two, though I’ve no idea if it will work. If you use some diluted apricot jam between your marzipan and cake surface, it might help prevent the staining of the icing layer, or you could use coloured icing to lessen the impact of any staining, or wrap a ribbon around the side of the cake to cover it up.

I've never made a Christmas cake before, so no expert, making turn it over, dab it on kitchen paper to take off the excess and leave it on a baking rack, so that it can drip through a bit. Rewrap it after a few hours and I'm sure it'll be fine, I doubt it would dry out. Wrap a ribbon round the outside when it's iced to disguise any bits where the colour might be a bit off.

I used to overfeed my mums Christmas cake on purpose as a teen. It will be fine, just very moist and may not hold its shape when slicing. It shouldn't leach through to the icing if you put a good layer of compote and marzipan in between.

I've flipped it over and tried to wipe the excess off. I'm going to leave it exposed for a while and see if that helps. The upper edge in this photo is very wet and soggy! We do some quite complex decorating, so now I'm worried about the structural integrity! I don't want it to collapse!

When are you planning to decorate?
I would just leave it for a week, unfed and it should be dry enough to decorate. Don't decorate a damp cake!

Well, we were planning on doing it today, but that's off the table now!

Annoying as we have a free afternoon earmarked for it, but we'll have to do it after work one evening (we're away next weekend).

Can it wait until 23/24th? It would benefit from a good week drying out.

Turn it over and leave it uncovered for a week. Then decorate it. Should be fine. If not, call it a "pudding cake". Will still be delicious.

It'll be fine. Leave it out for a couple of days then apply a layer of apricot jam before you marzipan.
I'm interested how you were planning to decorate today as the cake isn't even marzipanned yet, and the marzipan needs a couple of days to dry out before icing otherwise the oils in the marzipan can leach into the icing.

Really? I've always marzipanned and decorated on the same day and never had a problem. I don't make my own marzipan, just use the bog standard shop bought stuff.

the leaving a gap between marzi and icing comes from the olden days when people used to make/buy marzi made fresh with high almond content (hence the oil). Its unlikely to cause an issue with modern shop bought marzi

Leave it uncovered and eat it in a bowl with cream.

Bought marzipan doesn't really need drying out time at all like a homemade one would.

It will be fine especially if fondant going on top as well, royal icing is a bit more likely to stain but it usually takes a good while for that to happen and not a couple of weeks, more like months. I've iced fruit cakes that my fingers just went straight up into when I picked them up as they were so soggy, not my doing mind you but some people really go overboard with the booze!

Yum!

Slice the soggy bit off carefully and eat immediately. Yum.

Its not just people in the "olden days" who make their own marzipan, I've always done it!