Christmas cake icing

I have been wanting to update my recipe blog, but I never get the chance to do so.. I wish a day had more than 24 hours!

I just finished icing my christmas cake today. I haven't made the rose flowers yet.!!( will upload the photo later)

The process of Icing a cake sounds a lot complicated. In reality it is one of the easiest thing to do.

I usually use marzipan as a base coat and Royal icing as a top coat.

Marzipan( Almond icing)
100gm almonds ground
1 cup icing sugar
3/4 cup castor sugar(fine)
1 egg yolk
2 tbsp lemon juice

In a bowl, mix the lemon juice and the egg yolk, add the rest of the ingredients and knead well till it feels smooth and nice. Sprinkle icing sugar on a kitchen board and roll the almond icing to 1/4 inch thickness( I find it easier to roll the icing, when I sprinkle some icing sugar on top of the almond mix and then roll).
I do cover the whole cake with the almond icing, so it is easier for me to do the royal icing. But you don't have to do it. You can cover just the top of the cake and not the side
Some people apply 2 to 3 spoons of apricot jam over the cake, before placing the almond icing, so the almond icing would stick to the cake. I hate apricots!


Next layer is the Royal icing. It is one of the easiest icing.. this is how you do it
1 egg white
1 tsp lemon juice
2 to 2 1/2 cup icing sugar

First thing to do is sift the icing sugar.. so that there are no lumps

In a fairly big bowl, mix the egg white and the lemon juice using a fork. ( you don't have to beat it so much.. just simple mixing will do)
Now add the icing sugar one spoon at a time (do not add too much of sugar at one time, you will get a lousy icing..I am telling you that from experience!!), in to the egg lemon juice mix and keep stirring, keep adding the icing sugar till you get the fairly stiff icing..
(I dip a spatula in to the icing and lift a bit of icing up and check if the icing forms a peak).
Apply the icing on top of the marzipan layer and smoothen the surface.

See, I told you, it is simple!!

The cake above was the one I baked for my daughter's birthday.The top coat is royal icing and the dancing girl was made with Plastic icing..