Marzipaning my Christmas Cakes

Now that the cake boards have arrived its time to Marzipan my Christmas Cakes.

You want to do this at least a day before you plan to ice your cake. I usually do it a week before and wrap it up but left it a bit later due to forgetting to get cake boards!

Please note: this is my method of putting marzipan on a cake, I apologise to any professionals out there!

You will need marzipan (I found that 60g did an 6" cake), icing sugar for stopping any sticking, a couple of tablespoons of jam (the smoother the better), your original cake tin and a rolling pin.

first dust the surface with icing sugar and roll out your marzipan until about 5mm thick.

Take you cake tin and press gently into the top of the marzipan.

The tin will leave an indent the size of your cake which you can cut out with a sharp knife.

I had two cakes so did this twice.

You now need to unwrap your cakes and place next to the cake boards. You will be using the jam as a sweet glue for your cakes and marzipan but also to stick the cake to the cake board. using a small bowl microwave the jam for 30 seconds-1 minute until liquid.

Spread the jam thinly onto the top of the cake then place top down on the board - this means that the bottom of the cake, which is flat will now act as the top of your cake!




Next spread some jam on the new top of the cake and place the ready cut marzipan on top and gently press down.

Now that the cakes are on the boards upside down you are probably thinking "there's a little bit of a gap at the bottom, what do I do about it?" No matter how slowly you bake your cake you are likely to have a bit of a gap because the middle of the cake has risen slightly. Dont worry we

will now sort this out.

Roll out the remaining marzipan as a long strip, keep flouring the top and bottom as you turn it to prevent sticking. Measure the bprd to the top of your cake and cut a long strip this width.

With the off-cuts you can now use your hands to roll a long pieces out which you then place around the base of the cake to even out that gap. press it in gently with your fingers, it doesn't have to be pretty as no-one will see it.

Problem solved!

Finally brush some jam all the way round the remaining visible sponge. Then take the long strip of marzipan and wrap it around the cake. If you have a gap at the end don't worry just cut out a piece of marzipan to fit the gap.

Push together all the edges to seal the cake inside and smooth with your fingers.

Remember this is the base for your icing to go on top of, don't worry if there are any discoloured bits just make sure it smooth and sealed



Result:

preparation, preparation, preparation!

All good plans....

I had planned to marzipan the Christmas Cakes on sunday but realised I did not have the cake boards! doh!

They arrived today so will do an update later!

Naked Noodles

I picked up 2 packs of Hoisin Duck flavoured Naked Noodles in Tesco when they were on offer.

On first impression Naked Noodles seem to be a premium noodle brand with less additives than their popular "junk food" competitors.

"peel back the lid" what lid?

On opening the pack however I was disappointed to find a paper cup a plastic bag of noodles and a sachet of flavouring. Far from ready to just add water as it said on the side of the box. There was no lid to peel back as stated.


So first I had to take the cup out of the box add the noodles, open the flavouring sachet and unwrap the fork - lots of needless non-recyclable packaging.

You are then asked to add 200mls of boiling water or 3.5cm from the top - no fill line provided. I did the "guess what 3.5cm from the top is" method rather than digging out a jug.

The result: Quite watery noodles - there was so much liquid that I found it hard to fish out the noodles before tipping the remainder down the sink. On the website the noodles appear to have been re-branded "Ramen noodle soup" I'm not sure if this was missed off the original packaging or was added due to the overly soupy style of the product.

They had a nice flavour, quite strong and obviously hoisin sauce but really were nothing special.

The product certainly did not live up to the impression (or the instructions) on the box as an easy but healthy noodle snack.

Christmas Cakes done!

I have just made my Christmas cakes for this year.

Rather than my usual 8" cake, I went for two 6" cakes instead. I did however stick to Delia Smith's Classic Christmas cake as it's served me so well over the last few years.

I'm not going to post the full recipes as you can visit Delia's page by clicking the link above. I will however give a quick run-down of how easy it is to make.

First you want to measure out your fruit the night before and mix with your alcohol of choice! I Chose a lovely cherry liqueur as it needed using up, brandy and other such drinks with a high alcohol content work well.

Give the fruit a good stir whenever possible throughout the evening and next morning to make sure its being soaked nicely.



Next is the Golden Rule of Baking; measure out and prepare your ingredients. There is nothing worse than getting half way through a recipe and having to run out to get something you've missed especially at a crucial time in the method!

Now is also the time to line your tins with a double layer or baking paper as you will be cooking the cake for a long time!

 Sift the flour and other dry ingredients into your largest bowl then add butter, sugar, eggs and treacle and mix with an electric hand blender. I've done this by hand a couple of years and it can be done but just takes a bit longer and usually a tea break when your arm starts to ache!

 Once smooth, mix in all the lovely fruit and the lemon and orange zest before popping into your pre-prepared tins and baking.

How long do I bake my cake for?

Very good question! If you stick to Delia's recipe then its a minimum of 4 hours but could be longer.

If you are using a different sized tin then the times will vary.

Delia also shows how to scale up and down the recipe and the baking times.

Once a skewer comes out clean, cool in the tin for 30 minutes then remove and once fully cool I wrap them in baking paper then tin foil. Feed on a weekly basis until ready to cover: to feel poke a skewer through the base of the cake evenly across the surface then drizzle on a couple of tablespoons of brandy or other alcohol, this keeps the cake moist and preserved as well as giving flavour.

You can make the cake a month in advance or longer if you wish, I would recommend at least 2 weeks to give feeding time!

Next week I will be putting marzipan on the cakes!