This snowstorm Christmas cake decoration will wow any guests you have over the festive period!
We’ve used florist/petal/gum paste to make the snowflakes here as it dries quickly and firmly. But you can also use ready-to-roll fondant/sugarpaste, which is cheaper and more widely available. Just make sure you leave ample time (at least 2 days) for your snowflakes to fully dry if using the latter.
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Yields:
16 serving(s)
Prep Time:
2 hrs
Total Time:
2 hrs
Ingredients
2
x 400g packs white florist/petal/gum paste, available from squires-shop.com
250g
icing sugar sifted, plus extra to dust
2Tbsp.
apricot jam
20
cm round Christmas fruit cake
500g
natural marzipan
500g
ready-to-roll white fondant/sugarpaste icing
2tsp.
gin, or use freshly boiled and cooled water
1
medium egg white
You will also need
Snowflake cutters of various sizes, see GH Tips
Silver dragees
Silver/pearly luster, optional
Directions
Step 1Start by making the snowflakes (up to a few days ahead). Working with small handfuls of the florist paste at a time (keep rest covered as it dries out very quickly), roll out on a work surface lightly dusted with icing sugar to 3mm (1/8in) thickness. Stamp out snowflake shapes of various sizes. Repeat until you have enough snowflakes (or have used up the florist paste). Leave to dry overnight on baking trays lined with baking parchment until solid (if using fondant/sugarpaste this will take longer).
Step 2The day before you want to assemble the cake decoration, in a small pan, gently warm jam to loosen. Pass through a sieve into a small bowl. Put cake on a board and brush top and sides with sieved jam. Set aside.
Step 3Lightly dust a work surface with icing sugar and roll out marzipan until large enough to cover cake (see GH Tips). Lift on to cake and gently use your hands to smooth into position. Trim excess. Leave overnight to allow the marzipan to harden slightly.
Step 4When your marzipan has hardened, lightly dust a work surface with icing sugar and roll out fondant/sugarpaste until large enough to cover cake (see GH Tip). Brush the marzipan with gin or cooled, boiled water to moisten. Cover cake with the white icing, smoothing all over with your hands as before. Trim excess. Transfer to a cake stand or plate.
Step 5If using, brush lustre on to the dried snowflakes for added twinkle and set aside.
Step 6In a medium bowl whisk the egg white to stiff peaks, add the icing sugar and whisk until very thick. Spoon into a piping bag fitted with a fine 3mm (1/8in) nozzle (or just snip the end to make a small opening).
Step 7Pipe icicles of varying lengths on to the side of the cake (hanging down from the top). Pipe a circle of dots around base of cake. Next use the icing to stick the hardened snowflakes on the top and sides of the cake in a pleasing pattern – we carefully broke some snowflakes in order to stick them at right-angles on the side of the cake. Finally, fix on some silver dragees with the icing. Allow icing to harden.
Get ahead
The hardened snowflakes will keep for weeks, carefully packed in between layers of kitchen paper in a container at room temperature.
To store
The decorated cake will last well for up to 2 weeks (or as long as the cake will!).
GH Tips
To measure whether your marzipan or sugarpaste is large enough to cover your cake, use a piece of string. Cut string so its long enough to go up one side of the cake, over the top (centrally), then down the opposite side. Lay this string on the rolled-out marzipan/sugarpaste to determine whether it’s large enough.
All our snowflake cutters came from sugarshack.co.uk
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”!).
