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: