wedding cake

[debka]

i'm making my sister in law's wedding cake- will it be ok if i finish and decorate it 10 days before the wedding?

Debka, if it is a rich fruit cake, not a problem at all. Traditionally, you keep the top tier for the first babies Christening (at least 9 months later), so 10 days won't be a problem.
In fact, I still have some of our Christmas cake left. It is getting a little dry, but then it has been cut.
You just need to stop the icing drying out too much or they won't be able to cut it.
If you are doing a Madeira type sponge cake, then that might be a little too long for comfort. I would work on 3 or 4 days. If you are doing anything even softer, then it will be stale by the day of the wedding.

it is a rich fruit cake, I've already made that part so it can mature. i'll marzipan and sugarpaste it, but am VERY busy the last week before the wedding. do you think the sugarpaste will dry out too much? how do you think I can keep it moist enough to cut?

ps christening expected in about 6 months- have done a small top tier with that in mind!!

tbh it will be fine esp.as it's a rich fruit cake if you use marzipan and sugar paste for the actual wedding cake
i would recommend using royal icing for the top tier tho
out of interest where is your fruit cake recipe from?

thank you
i use the recipe from The Home Guide to Cake Decorating by Jane Price- it has measurements for many different sizes of cake tins so is very handy.

must check that one out!
i'm a delia devotee myself having experimented with many recipes

yes i also like delia's recipe (not a delia devotee for many things though... hate her pastry, she says not to bake it blind, is she mad???!!!)

That sounds as if you have it all sorted. Good luck!

neither am i
but her xmas pud and her traditional fruitcake recipe are benchmarks imho

ooh silverwood if you're still here- any tips for stopping the icing drying out? :D

(also love her lemon meringue pie...but with pastry my way!)

Debka, I can't really help you on that one, save that if you keep it covered it won't dry out as much as if you don't (although you won't want it to sweat). My mother used to use glycerine when icing our Christmas cake when I was a child, but that is an awfully long time ago and I don't know how she made her icing normally.
You could probably speak to those nice people at Squires Kitchen in Farnham.

thank you
(I'm sure it wasn't that long ago )