Special Occasion Cakes Recipes - Noel Christmas Cake

Ingredients

• 20cm round rich fruit cake

• 30ml apricot jam, warmed and sieved

• 750 marzipan

• 900g royal icing

• red and green food coloring

• 23cm round silver cake board

• 3 greaseproof paper piping bags

• No 1 writing nozzle bags

• 2 x No 0 writing nozzles

• 44 large gold dragees

• 2.5m gold ribbon, 2cm wide

• 2.5m red ribbon, 5mm wide

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Method:

1. Brush the fruit cake with apricot jam, cover with the marzipan and place on the cake board.

2. Flat-ice the top of the cake with two layers of royal icing and leave to dry. Ice the sides of the cake and peak the royal icing, leaving a space around the centre for the ribbon. Leave to dry. Reserve the remaining royal icing.

3. Pipe beads of icing around the top edge of the cake and place a gold dragee on alternate beads. Using a No 1 writing nozzle, write "NOEL" across the cake and pipe holly leaves, stems and berries around the top.

4. Secure the ribbons around the side of the cake. Tie a red bow and attach to the front of the cake. Use the remaining ribbon for the board. Leave to dry overnight.

5. Tint 30ml/2 tbsp of the royal icing bright green and 15ml/l tbsp bright red. Using a No 0 writing nozzle, over­pipe "NOEL" in red, then the edging beads and berries. Overpipe the holly in green. Leave to dry.