Icing a Christmas cake can be done a few weeks before you plan to serve it, so get it done early and it’ll be one less thing to worry about on the big day. If your decoration skills are somewhat limited, it is easy to make a plain iced cake look spectacular with nothing more than a piece of ribbon and a little holly.

Ingredients

Metric

Imperial

500g of marzipan
1kg fondant icing
1 tbsp of apricot jam

Place the cake on a cake board and, using a pastry brush, brush with apricot jam

Sprinkle a little icing sugar on the work surface and roll the marzipan out to a thickness of about 1cm. Keep turning it as you roll to keep an even shape

Fold the marzipan over the rolling pin and lay on to the cake

Use your hands to smooth down the marzipan, pulling down gently and making sure there are no creases

Trim away the excess marzipan using a small sharp knife

Sprinkle the surface with a little more icing sugar, then work the sugar paste for around 30 seconds to warm it slightly

Roll the sugar paste out to a thickness of 1cm, turning as you roll

Moisten the marzipan with a little water to help the sugar paste stick

Fold the sugar paste over the rolling pin and lay onto the cake

Smooth the surface of the sugar paste with an icing smoother, then gently pull the icing down the sides

Run the palm of your hand around the cake, ensuring that there are no creases. If the icing creases pull it away from the cake, remove the crease and smooth it onto the cake again