Ingredients

Iced Cake

• 1x20cm Christmas fruit cake
• 750g marzipan
• 100g apricot jam (for the glaze)
• 750g ready to roll icing

Colourful Star Cake

• 1x20cm Iced Christmas cake
• 400g ready to roll white icing
• red, green and blue food dye
• apricot jam, prepared as a glaze (see below)

Ivy

• 1x20cm Iced Christmas cake
• 300g ready to roll white icing
• silver and/or gold food glitter or dust
• apricot jam, prepared as a glaze (see below)

Silver Star Cake

• 1x20cm iced Christmas cake
• 1 container edible silver balls
• 3 small silver star candles or nightlights
• 1 metre silver ribbon (wired ribbon works best)

Fruit Glazed Christmas Cake

• 1x20cm Christmas fruit cake (not iced)
• 150g apricot jam, prepared as a glaze (see below)
• 300g mixed glazed and dried fruit eg. cherries, citrus peel, papaya, figs, apricots etc
• 50g pecan nuts
• 1 metre decorative ribbon

Method

1. Glaze: Melt the apricot jam in a saucepan with 1 tbsp water, then pass through a sieve.
2. To Cover with Marzipan: Turn the cake out onto a plate or cake board. Brush with the glaze. Knead the marzipan on a surface dusted with icing sugar. Roll the marzipan out into a 30cm (12in) round. Carefully lay it over the cake, moulding it around the sides. Trim the excess marzipan from the base of the cake with a sharp knife.
3. To Ice the Cake: Roll the icing out on a surface dusted with icing sugar to 30cm (12in) round. Lay it over the marzipan covered cake, moulding around the sides. Trim the excess icing from around the base with a sharp knife.

• Colourful Star Cake: Roll the icing out so that it is .3mm thick. Cut out stars with a small star shaped biscuit cutter. Pour a little of the food colouring into 3 different bowls. Starting with 1 colour at a time, brush the stars lightly with the food colouring, washing the brush well when using a different colour. When you have painted the stars decorate the cake by brushing the unpainted side of each star with a little glaze and placing them on the iced cake, continue this until the cake is well covered.
• Ivy Cake Roll icing out so that it 3mm thick. Cut out ivy using different sized ivy shape cutters. Place them on icing dusted spoon handles, spoons etc. to give them a curved surface. Put a little glaze on the uncurved side of each piece of ivy and place on the cake so that they make a stem of ivy (curving them around the cake). Either smallest to largest or one size each. Dust the ivy with silver or gold, glitter or dust. Tie a thick silver ribbon around the cake.
• Silver Star Cake: Mark around the edges of the top of the iced cake randomly with a small star and large star shaped biscuit cutter (as pictured above). Fill the small stars with the edible silver balls so that you have silver stars and just go over the edges of the large stars with the silver balls. Place 3 small silver candles in the centre of the cake (if you can't find these simply cover the cake with more silver ball stars or use nightlights). Tie a thick silver ribbon around the cake.
• Fruit Glazed Christmas Cake: Brush your christmas cake generously with the apricot glaze. Decorate the top of the cake with your selection of glazed fruit and pecan nuts making sure that they stick to the cake. Brush the glaze over the fruit and nuts. Tie a decorative ribbon around the cake.