Hi Bold Bakers!
A big part of Christmas tradition in Ireland is to decorate a Christmas cake.
I'm gonna show you how you can take my fruitcake and transform it into a Christmas centerpiece.
What you need for this video is my auntie Rosaleen's fruitcake, my homemade marzipan,
how to make royal icing, and my marshmallow fondant.
Now as always all of these recipes can be found on BiggerBolderBaking.com.
Okay, let's start out with our fondant.
So here I have my marshmallow fondant, super easy to make, all you need is a bag of marshmallows
and powdered sugar.
Now I'm gonna roll this out to around ?” thick.
This is gonna be the decorations for the top of our cake.
It’s important to roll fondant on powdered sugar because it makes it so much easier to
roll out.
Okay good, this is the thickness that I want.
So here I have some star cutters I've got them all different sizes, and I'm just gonna
cut out a few stars, to put on top of my cake.
I like to do them different sizes so you kinda get a 3D effect.
You're gonna see what I'm doing in a minute, it’s all gonna make sense.
Okay so I have enough stars to decorate the top of my cake, any leftover bit of fondant
you can roll back up wrap it in cling wrap, and use it another time.
So now what I'm gonna do is bedazzle these stars so here I have a little bit of water
and a brush I use this brush in the kitchen for pastry and things like that.
And I'm just going to dampen one of the stars all over the top.
This is going to stick our decoration to it.
So here I have something really beautiful this is edible gold.
You can get this online no I'm gonna put a link on my website it’s not that expensive
and it’s just really beautiful.
And what we’re gonna do is just cover our star with the gold.
Make sure you cover all the surface so it really stands out.
And then just continue doing this with as many stars as you want to put on the top of
your cake.
So a little bit of water, and a little bit of gold.
Once the water dries the gold will stick on there and they'll be good to go.
So those are our stars they're lovely and twinkly now what I like to do is leave them
out at room temperature to dry a little bit for a minimum of 5 hours but preferably overnight
and it'll just make them much easier to stack later on.
So let’s get into the decorating of the actual cake here I have my auntie Rosaleen's
Christmas cake this recipe is on my website and it is a huge fan favorite my auntie has
been making this for years and it came straight from Ireland so you know that it’s good.
So here I have some apricot jam that's been heated up this is really important because
what we’re going to do is brush the cake all over with this apricot jam and this is
what the marzipan layer is going to stick to.
Now we use apricot because it doesn't really have a color and it’s very mild in flavor
so you don't have to use it, but it’s best that you use something that is similar doesn't
have a whole lot of color and the flavor doesn't overpower the cake.
So just brush this all over.
So a fun fact in Ireland you actually make your Christmas cake in around October maybe
even September because you want them to sit let all the flavors marinate and the cake
will just get even better.
And don't worry, it will not go bad it is loaded with fruit, little bit of sugar, and
it stays perfectly preserved.
So there's the top and the sides this is lovely now I'm gonna set this over to one side and
we’re gonna roll out our marzipan.
So you want to roll this out around the same thickness as the fondant ?” to ?”. So
to move my marzipan you can either roll it over your rolling pin what I like to do is
use a plastic chopping board and just get it right underneath there.
Then I can lift it up and gently slide it on the top of my cake.
So once your marzipan is on there use your hands to mold it into the shape of the cake
pushing it all the way around and on the top.
Might want to take a little knife and cut away any excess.
We just want to bring the marzipan all the way to the bottom of the cake.
So now not only is it tradition to add marzipan to a cake, but it also keeps your cake really
moist for the time you have it over the holidays.
Okay lovely, if you have any little cracks or anything like that just push them together
cover them up, and if there's any little holes you can just shove in a little piece of excess
marzipan.
But don't worry if you think your cake doesn't look perfect because we’re gonna be covering
all of this in royal icing.
So the next thing we need to decorate our cake is royal icing, now this is on my website
this is for decorating cakes and not for decorating cookies because that one’s a lot thinner
and we want this nice and thick so we can plaster it onto our cake.
So what I love about this is that it’s really rustic just plop it onto your cake smear it
around with your spatula, and what we’re kind of gonna end up with is something that’s
gonna dry and look like snow.
So you do not have to get this smooth it can be rough and ready.
So I've got my cake on a cake stand and I'm just moving it around as I'm frosting but
if you don't have one don't worry about it, these do however make your life easier so
you might want to put it on your Christmas list.
So if you're wondering when is a good time to decorate your Christmas cakes do it the
week before Christmas then you have them out of the way, they're ready to go and they're
still going to look beautiful throughout the holidays.
So this is looking good I smoothed out the sides a little bit and left the top a little
bit more rustic, because next we’re gonna put on our stars.
So here I have my stars Thayer nice and dried out and what I'm going to do is pretty much
just kind of stack them on top of the cake leaning up against each other so you kind
of have a pyramid of stars.
And they're going to dry in the royal icing so that will hold them up also.
You want to make sure that you lean them against each other so that they hold up.
Also when the icing dries it’ll keep them in place.
So I've admitted multiple times on Bigger Bolder Baking that I'm not the world’s best
cake decorator but I have to say this looks really festive and it was super easy to do.
Now what I'm gonna do is just set it over to the side and at room temperature let the
icing dry.
So there you have it a beautiful cake that is ready to rock and roll this holiday season.
For all the recipes in this video and for my holiday baking headquarters head over to
my website and I’ll see you back here really soon for more Bigger Bolder Baking.