Icing your cake

Before

A careful preparation will make icing our cake easy. The more perfectly shaped the cake, the better the results.
Use the correct tin size, spread the mixture evenly, smooth the surface with wet fingers and tap the tin on the bench to remove air bubbles.
You'll need about 500g of marzipan, ready-made almond icing and 500g of soft icing for a 20cm cake.
Prevent your icing to dry out by covering with a plastic wrap.

Marzipan or almond icing

Melt 3 tablespoons of apricot jam with 1 teaspoon of water in a small pan over a low heat, sieve out any lumps and brush over the cake. This will hold the icing in place.
Dust a worksurface with icing sugar and roll out the marzipan to a 2 mm thickness.
Roll it over a rolling pin, then carefully drap the marzipan over the cake, smoothing out any wrinkles with icing sugar-dusted hands.
Trim off any excess around the base of the cake and leave the cake overnight in cool dry place. This layer makes the base for the soft icing.
You can interchange the marzipan with the almond icing.

Soft icing

Brush a thin layer of a lightly beaten egg white over the almond icing.
Dust a worksurface with icing. Roll out the icing and cover the cake using the same method as for the marzipan.
Dust your hands with icing sugar and smooth the surface by usins a 'smoother'. Trim off any excess around the base of the cake with a sharp knife.
Leave the cake overnight in cool dry place.

Decorating

Leftover icing can be used to create small decorations. Paint with food coloring and dry. Then stick them to the cake with a little of egg white mixed with icing sugar.
You can shape and color the icing into green Christmas trees, various sizes and colors presents, Greeting letters, green leaves and red balls to represent holly berries.
Holly leaves can be used alone (no berries) as a wreath around the edges of the cake.
Note: never use real holly berries to decorate your cake, they are toxic!