Cake icing advice please

[bluesky]

I need some cake help please! I am decorating a cake for next Friday. I have the fruit cake wrapped away in a tin and have bought my marzipan and rolled icing.

I've read that I ought to do the marzipan now, stuck on with some heated sieved apricot jam, and leave it out with just a teatowel over to dry out for a few days. Is this right?

Then brush cooled boiled water over marzipan to stick icing on?

I would like to cut out some shapes with the remainder to colour and stick on. Should I do that straight away, or when the iced cake is hard? Again do they stick with the water or something else?

The bit I'm confused about is when it's decorated, someone said to me you can't put it in cake tin because it softens up, the white icing doesn't stay hard.

What do you do with yours? Leave it out for a few days covered with tea towel to harden and then put in a cardboard cake box so it has air?

Make sure to boil the jam to sterilise it, not just warm it. The one time I have ever had a cake go mouldy on me was when I took a shortcut and used jam straight out of the jar. Big mistake!

Once the cake is covered in marzipan, it will be fairly well sealed and won't go stale for a long time. Theonly reason to cover it with a teatowel is so that flies etc won't land on it. I never used to bother, I just left it in a room with the door shut.

In theory you're supposed to let the marzipan dry out for a few days so that colour and oil won't seep through the icing. But in practice that has never happened to me with rolled icing. When I haven't had the time to let it rest, I have often marzipaned and iced on the same day with no ill-effects.

Again, you can cut out and stick on immediately, or you can wait as long as you like. Rolled icing won't harden completely for a long time - days or weeks, depending in the weather. But it will dry out on the outside and develop a thin, hard skin. So if you think there is any risk of having to push the decorations onto the cake, then it is better to do them immediately so that the surface of the icing won't crack. It's only hairline cracks, but if that matters you need to take it inot account. If you're just placing shapes gently onthe cake, then you don't need to worry.

If the icing shapes are made of the same icing with which the cake is iced, then water will stick them on nicely. I use a soft, fine paintbrush.

Again, you don't need to cover it with a towel, just make sure it is in a fly-free area. Definitely don't put it in a sealed box. A cardboard box is fine. The cake can dry out in it as well (close the box to keep the flies away).

Have fun! Post a picture of your creation!

Another tip: take of all rings, bracelets, wristwatch before you start handling the icing. It won't harm them (just washes off with water) but they will harm it, making great gashes in it just when you are trying to smooth it down.

If you dust your hands with cornflour and gently polish the iced cake with your palms you can get a lovely smooth rounded finish - almost glowing. Do this once the icing is on, but before you add any more decorations. If there's too much cornflour left on the icing, just brush it off gently with a large, very soft paintbrush.

prettycandles you have completely destressed me, thanks so much for the info!