A simple and elegant way to decorate your Christmas cake - we've even added our amaretti biscuitsfor an extra edible treat. The trick to good crystallisation is to lightly paint with egg white and dredge generously with caster sugar.
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Yields:
20
Prep Time:
1 hr 30 mins
Total Time:
1 hr 30 mins
Ingredients
23cm (9in) fruit cake
To cover
2Tbsp.
apricot glaze
Icing sugar to dust
750g
golden marzipan
750g
white ready-to-roll sugarpaste icing
Vodka or cooled boiled water, to brush
To decorate
60g
golden marzipan
Flaked almonds, toasted
1
medium egg white
10 or so rosemary sprigs
Caster sugar, to dredge
Cinnamon sticks, we used East End Cinnamon (Cassia) sticks
Step 1Put cake on a board and spread top and sides thinly with apricot glaze. Sift icing sugar on to a work surface and roll out marzipan until large enough to cover cake. Lay on to cake and smooth with hands, easing out crease. Trim excess. Allow to air dry for at least 2hr, ideally overnight.
Step 2Lightly dust a work surface and roll out sugarpaste as before. Brush marzipan layer lightly with vodka or cooled boiled water, then lay over the sugarpaste. Smooth into position, trimming excess. Allow to dry for a least 2hr, ideally overnight.
Step 3To make the marzipan pinecones, divide the marzipan into 3. Working with 1 portion at a time, shape into a tall cone. Starting at the bottom, carefully stick in the flaked almonds from pointy ends until the marzipan is fairly covered. Repeat with remaining marzipan and flaked almonds. Lightly dust the pinecones with icing sugar and set aside.
Step 4To crystallise the decorations, whisk the egg white until lightly frothy. Working with 1 sprig at a time, lightly brush rosemary with egg white, then dredge with caster sugar, gently shaking off excess. Lay on to a baking tray lined with baking parchment. Repeat process with remaining rosemary sprigs, cinnamon sticks and cherries/cranberries. Leave to dry for at least 3hr.
Step 5Tie ribbon(s) round base of cake. Arrange crystallised rosemary in a wreath on top of the iced cake and intersperse with other crystallised elements, star anise, marzipan pinecones and amaretti biscuits, if you like.
GET AHEAD
Cover cake with marzipan and sugarpaste layers up to a week ahead. Crystallise decorations and make pinecones up to 2 days ahead. (Store uncovered).
TO STORE
Keep uncovered for up to a week while the decorations look their best. The cake itself will keep much longer.
An experienced and highly skilled team of food writers, stylists and digital content producers, the Good Housekeeping Cookery Team is a close-knit squad of food obsessives. Cookery Editor Emma Franklin is our resident chilli obsessive and barbecue expert, who spends an inordinate amount of time on holidays poking round the local supermarkets seeking out new and exciting foods. Senior Cookery Writer Alice Shields is a former pastry chef and baking fanatic who loves making bread and would have peanut butter with everything if she could. Her favourite carb is pasta, and our vibrant green spaghetti is her weeknight go-to. Lover of all things savoury, Senior Cookery Writer Grace Evans can be found eating crispy corn and nocellara olives at every opportunity, and will take the cheeseboard over dessert any time (though she cannot resist a slice of tres leches cake). With a wealth of professional kitchen know-how, culinary training and years of experience between them, they are all dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work (and if they don’t – we’ll have the answer for why*) every time (*90% of the time the answer is: “buy an separate oven thermometer”!).
