*Simple* Christmas cake decorating ideas please.

A question about : *Simple* Christmas cake decorating ideas please.

Hi,

For the past few years we have had an annual Christmas Cake competition at work. I have always done reasonably well, but I don't do conventional icing (although I do like marzipan).

My cake is in the oven - you may see reports of an unidentified cloud of rum vapour drifting slowly over parts of Staffordshire - so please does anyone have any ideas for simple decorating schemes that even I might attempt?

The past two years I have a)topped the cake with marzipan, and gently singed it with a blowlamp and b)topped the cake with almonds in a light honey toffee.

All ideas gratefully received.

Thanks in advance,

Regards,

White

(PS My ideal Christmas cake needs a spoon, or even better, a straw!)

Best answers:

• One thing that's really simple and effective is to use some greenery from your garden to make it a "wreath" - ie, that sits in a circle around the top. I've done this before using holly, eucalyptus or even bay leaves. You can also dip the edges in egg white and then dust with caster sugar for that freshly 'snowed' on look. Use cranberries or redcurrants to brighten it up - cranberries will last longer. Also looks nice with a (well proportioned!) pillar candle or two in the centre.
  If you'd like a simple design using marzipan, why not mix some with some food dye (3 or 4 different colours), mould it into cubes and (leave it to dry for a while first and then) tie with ribbon for a pile of Christmas 'parcels' on top.
  Good luck with the competition!
  ps ref. drinking your cake.... this year I've been 'feeding' mine brandy using a syringe and I think it will turn out to be the moistest I've ever made!
• Many thanks helenstuff - sounds easy enough, my only concern that some of the numpties, sorry, colleagues at work might try to eat the stuff!
  I also like the look of Jane Asher's last minute Christmas Cake decoration - but it is similar to those I have done before.
  Regards,
  White
  (PS the fumes must have got to me - sorry I posted in the wrong group!)
• home bargains have soem lovely little supercook sugar shapes of snowmne, father christmas and holly wreaths in packs of 12 for 25p and theyre in date until 2009!
• when I was at school I won the Home Ec class Christmas cake competition 3 years in a row My favoutie decoration was also the easiest.
  Sugar bells.
  Get a bell mould, you can buy these in cake shops but I used a Christmas tree decoration (just make sure it has a good "interior" bell shape with no holes or clapers etc inside!). If you want hollow bells you need 2, one smaller than the other but you can make solid ones which IMHO are just as effective.. Grease the inside of your (bigger) bell mould with something like fry light oil, & also the outside of the smaller mould if going for hollow bells. Mix lots of sugar with one egg white to form a very sugary paste. For a solid sugar bell pack the sugar very very tightly into the greased mould & finish by scraping off the bottom with a knife for a clean finish, for a hollow one pack it tightly around the insdie of the shape (use your finger to ensure there are no "holes" in it) then push your smaller gresed mould inside it so that it foms a shell on each side of the sugar mix. Leave to dry for 3-4 days somewhere dry & not too hot or too cold. When ready they should fall out of the moulds fairly easily. Make as many as you need & arrange on a cake (on marzipan looks very effective) with some red/green ribbion curled throguh/around them.
  It sounds a lot more complicated than it is
  HTH
• How about something like this Star Cake?
  Its one I haven't got around to trying out yet but it looks fairly easy and impressive.
  - Marzipan the cake and allow to dry (they recommend white mazipan)
  - Knead 450g/1lb fondant icing until pliable
  - Knead in 5ml/1tsp gum tragacanth to help fondan garden
  - Roll icing to 3mm/1/4" thick
  Cut out 40 stars and transfer to baking sheet lined with non-=stick baking parchment
  - Brush stars sparingly with a sugar and water solution and press edible gold leaf onto their surface or decorate tips of the stars with gold and silver balls. (you can also get gold glitter food colouring which can be brushed on instead)
  - Leave on baking sheet to dry in a warm place for at least 24 hours.
  - Ice cake with fondant icing and leave to dry for 24 hours
  - Push (the now hard) fondant stars into the icing at angles and tie ribbon around.
• Wow - Full-Time-Mum, that looks stunning. Not too sure I should mix naked lights with my cake - given the volume of Rum that has gone into it though.
  I think I am going to go with the Jane Asher version (see above) for this year, but I'll keep this one in mind for next year.
  Many thanks,
  White.
• from what i can see, Jane Asher's recipe is similar to what i did - there's a photo of it here, if you want to see. i just used a selection of dried/glaced fruits - apricots, prunes, glace cherries - and nuts - hazlenuts, brazils, walnuts, almonds and pecan nuts - all piled up higgledy piggeldy on the cake. The cake was glazed first with apricot jam and brandy that had been boiled up together, topped with the fruit, then the fruit "painted" with the same glaze and left to settle down a bit.
  the other idea i've seen is to roll out some ready to roll icing, really ragged. put the cake in the middle, and gather the icing up and around it, and "tie" it off with a length of rich looking cord, preferably with nice tassles on the end! where the edges have been gathered in the middle, fold them back out so you can see the cake, then fill the hole in the middle with anything you like, you could do dried fruits as above, or you could fill it with christmas baubles, or small foil wrapped "presents".
  I tried to find a pic of that (it was a pic in one of my christmas books) on the net, unfortunately to no avail... hope my instructions give you some ideas though!
  keth
  xx
• One I spotted in a magazine, sorry can't remember which one:
  Ice cake with marzipan then icing (though would be just as good with yellow marzipan then white, and I think would look nice if you just did the top), then gently cut out a few stars of different sizes on the top - but cutting only through the first layer, to allow the colour of the second layer to show through. Then fill some of them with those tiny sugar balls you can get...
  Good luck
  Rocky
• I ran out of time one Christmas.
  I put marzipan on the top of the cake, the a rough layer of royal icing. Doesn't have to be perfectly smooth. When that was dry, I lumped more royal icing on, spread it out roughly with the pallet knife then splatted the pallet knife into it to make peaks.
  I wrapped the sides of the cake in tin foil, and added some bought decorations of Christmas trees and penguins on ice skates.
  A winter wonderland cake that everyone thought was fab, so I didn't tell them it was a last minute rushed effort
• Hi
  You could look at my website for novelty cake ideas. I will admit some are very homespun and probably wouldn't win you any competitions! I am also looking for cake pictures to post on the 'your cakes' page. I don't make cakes except for family occasions and this has been a nice way to group them together.
  https://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/dizzybubb...mas_cakes.html
  Dizzzybubble
• I once made a really nice looking cake by covering it with marzipan and fondant, icing some little 'pearls' round the bottom and then decorating the top rim with some vaguely 'icicle' looking shapes. Then I got a baking tray and some greaseproof paper and put some foxes glacier mints on it, and stuck in it a hot oven for a couple of minutes until the sweets melted. You end up (if you use enough sweets lol) with something that looks a bit like a sheet of glass just don't melt it too much!
  Once this had cooled I broke it into large shards to look like ice, and, after putting some edible snow on the cake, carefully arranged the shards so that they were all sticking up and jagged - for a bit more stability I did use a little bit of royal icing, carefully hidden with more snow lol. To finish off I tied a silver ribbon round the cake and gently dusted it with some silver sparkle. It looked lovely
• Hi everyone, Great to hear you all chatting about cakes, if you like me love everything cakes, have a look at my new hobby website help and advice for cakes and decorating and home baking, if you need any help just let me know, I have 4 Christmas Cakes ideas from 1 design saving you lots of money.. Have a look and let me know if you enjoyed my new site, if you have any cake pictures of you own send them to me and I will post them on my site for all to share, have fun,, Helen. Google "chataboutcakes"