Blogs: Pandammonia 
The world that revolves around Caity Ross.
Christmas cake
I made the Christmas cake about a week before Christmas. I gather you’re supposed to make it much sooner than this because it has to mature or some such. I never got round to icing it though, so it has sat, untouched, on the kitchen table, for want of anywhere better to put it.
Last weekend, I thought I’d give icing it a whirl. This involves sticking on some marzipan with apricot jam, then smothering it with royal icing. You can use fondant icing, but I dislike it.
Step 1: painting the cake with apricot jam
We’re not big jam eaters. Last year’s jar of apricot jam, still in the fridge, had gone mouldy, and not for the first time, if I’m honest, so I chucked it. I decided guava jam would do instead, because it makes a good glaze for fruit flans made in those cakey flan cases you get. I put some in a glass dish, nuked it and painted it all over the cake with a pastry brush. Fortunately, I waited until the marzipan was ready before painting, or it would have dried.
Step 2: the marzipan
I discovered that marzipan doesn’t freeze well, especially when it’s been defrosted and refrozen during the year. Again, this is last year’s. So, that also went in the bin. I couldn’t be bothered going to see if the shop sold it, but I knew Delia has a recipe for almond icing, which is the same stuff, but without the lurid yellow colour. All I needed was 350g ground almonds.
I found 100g whole almonds (blanched) and just under 100g ground almonds. I also found a gazillion other kinds of nut. I have a grinder-like device, which I’ve used to grind almonds before, so I thought there’d be no problem. There was a problem. I chose macadamia nuts because they had no skins. The grinder refused to grind them because they were too oily. I ended up with a lumpy mush. If you have a recipe or other use for such a substance, please tell me in the comments.
I next found some hazelnuts. They had skins on, but are a much drier nut, so I ground them down, along with the blanched almonds and some more almonds with their skins on to make the numbers up. Finally, I had my 350g of “almonds”.
Other than that, I followed Delia’s instructions to the letter, but I ended up with a claggy brown mess. I think the nuts weren’t fine enough to absorb the liquid. I painted the cake as described above, then manually smeared the “marzipan” on. It actually tasted ok, but looked awful. It sat like that until today.
Step 3: the icing
I was sick of looking at the cake in its sorry state, so this evening, I made the icing. Delia said I should whisk it with an electric mixer for 10 minutes or until it formed stiff peaks. I clearly stopped too early because it kind of drooped down and off the sides. Still, I’m hopeful it’ll set overnight.
I shall sample it tomorrow.
Update: by popular request, I have uploaded a photo of the finished cake. Luckily, I didn’t take a photo of it with just its marzipan on.
Our 2009 Christmas cake
Automagically-generated possibly related posts:
sally at Thursday 7th January, 2010 @ 10.34pm GMT Europe/London
where is the pic…. never made marzipan myself often do my own icing but this year i cheated and used ready made and ready rolled
now i have THE BOOK maybe i will try my own marzipan as Geoff loves it lol
Sally in Norfolk » success and failure at Thursday 7th January, 2010 @ 10.57pm GMT Europe/London
[...] Thanks to a recipe I was given by my friend Caity . [...]
Pandammonium at Thursday 7th January, 2010 @ 11.48pm GMT Europe/London
That was the first time I’ve ever made marzipan. It simply never occurred to me to make my own before Delia! If you do make some, make sure you have enough ground almonds, and that you buy them pre-ground, so that they’re fine enough. That’s what I’ve learnt