Marzipan fruits

I made these Marzipan fruits on the same weekend as the fabulous Penguin Party- it was a serious sugar modelling weekend and my hands were stained all kinds of colours from all the food colouring! They look like my own little market stall :)

This fruit salad consists of bananas, apples, limes, clementines, lemons, cherries and peaches. They're not exactly to scale!

I think it's really important to get the colours and textures as realistic as possible. Notice how the lemons are a different, brighter, shade of yellow than the bananas. To texture the citrus fruits I simply rolled them against a real orange - what better way could there be to create the effect of the zest?! No fancy modelling tools here!

I diluted a bit of paste colour with vodka to make a thin paint for the bananas - one of the rare times a liquid food colouring is the right thing for the job.

I think the fruits made a cute Christmas present in this heart shaped box I bought in the local market;

Another Penguin Party

The original Penguin Party cake has always been my most popular cake. Whenever friends mention my blog it's always this cake that they find the most memorable. This year's Christmas cake, therefore, had a lot to live up to. I think I've managed to match the original festive fun!

My dear Nanna had kindly baked my two Christmas cakes a while ago and they have been left to mature (with plenty of added brandy of course!) However we only needed one cake this year so I decided to sandwich the two cakes together to create a really tall cake. I then gave the cakes the classic coating of apricot jam and marzipan using smoothers to ensure the marzipan had a very even finish which is a great base for the icing. I often mention my magic smoothers so I thought I'd take a photo to show you what they look like!

I find that it really helps to roll out an excess of sugarpaste when covering a cake - too little and it's hard to cover the edges without it folding or creasing. I lay the icing over the cake and using my hands start smoothing it down from the top to the bottom. I then use the smoothers again to ensure a really flat and polished finish. I always remember to follow my old teachers advice and clean the surface and tools between the marzipan and the icing as the oils in the marzipan leave a residue that could impair the icing.

Perfect! I could have just left it like this - but where would be the fun in that :)

When I was a child I used to make things out of Fimo, a kind of modelling clay that sets solid once baked. Making figures from modelling paste is incredibly similar.

The models themselves are just made from regular supermarket sugarpaste with added Tylo powder (CMC). Working this powder into the paste and leaving it to rest turns it from a soft and sticky icing into a very pliable yet strong gum that you can do fine work in and will also hold it's shape. This kind of work would be impossible without something like Tylo.

It's important to use good quality colouring pastes to get a really deep colour - liquid ones will just not work. I use Sugarflair colours. I did concede and buy the black paste, however, as I've found it's a pain in the ass to make your own truly black icing. I also use an edible glue to stick the different components together and reinforce them with dried spaghetti - everything you see is entirely edible - well except the ribbon!



I think I love the simple gold baubles and the fish shaped present the most. It's really the small details that make this cake what it is.

Merry Christmas Everyone! :D

It's the most wonderful time of the year

Ok, these are a bit 'home style'. I was a bit preoccupied with mulling wine and singing along to Christmas tunes instead of concentrating on baking the impressive biscuits that these really deserved to be. A couple of them are a little burned high bake - but on the bright side the mulled wine was delicious!

I first saw these houses on my favourite blog Domestic Sluttery and had to make them IMMEDIATELY! What could possibly be better than tiny gingerbread houses with icing, silver balls and a good cup of tea? However my hopes of instant gratification were dashed when I discovered there was no sugar bling in Tesco Metro. Why no silver balls, Tesco? Humbug, I say! I reluctantly concluded that chocolate chips were not an adequate substitute for glitter and postponed the the bake until I could acquire the requisite decorations.

The dough itself was fairly easy to make. I ended up chilling it overnight which made it a bit of a bugger to roll out. We had no trouble using some stiff royal icing to stick the different sections together. The doorways unfortunately closed over in the oven so they're not going to sit on a mug but they'll taste pretty good with a nice cup of tea (or mulled wine!) nonetheless.

Coming soon - stay tuned for Christmas cake 2012!