Jenny's blog: "good stuff to eat"

There are a variety of types of cake that are suitable to make this design, but weight is an issue and even if you support the layers the cake has to be of a type that will support the weight of three tiers. Supplies needed to decorate the cake Cakes 3 X walnut and whisky cake or your favourite fruitcake or pound cake (1 X 12 Inch Cake 1 X 10 inch cake and 1 x 8 inch cake ) Glaces and frostings 3 x apricot glaze 2 x marshmallow fondant ½ x Snow White Butter cream Icing 1 x royal icing Icing Tools Wilton star cutouts Star tips 14 or 16 or 17 star tip Small squeeze bottle with a tiny tip Walnut and Whisky Cake Serves 16 Takes about 20 minutes to make, about 21⁄2 hours to bake, plus cooling and 24 hours’ soaking 175g raisins 175g sultanas 175g ready-to-eat stoned dates, roughly chopped 150g natural glacé cherries, halved 100g ready-to-eat dried pears, roughly chopped 75g crystallized stem ginger, finely chopped Finely grated zest of 1 large lemon 250ml whisky 175g unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing 175g dark muscovado sugar 4 eggs, beaten 200g self-raising flour, sifted 1 tbsp golden syrup 2 tsp ground allspice 150g walnut halves, toasted Place the raisins, sultanas, dates, cherries, pears, ginger and lemon zest into a large bowl. Pour over the whisky, cover and leave to soak for 24 hours, stirring occasionally, until the fruit has absorbed the liquid and become plump. If you wish to not use whisky then use apple or orange juice for the same period. Grease the base and sides of a deep 12 inch cake tin and line with a double thickness of baking paper, ensuring the paper sits higher than the tin. Weigh out 300g of the soaked fruit and tip into a food processor. Blend the fruit to a thick, dark purée. Preheat the oven to 150°C fan 130°C gas 2. Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs, adding a little flour to prevent the mixture curdling. Fold in the remaining flour, along with the fruit purée, remaining soaked fruit, golden syrup, allspice and walnuts, until combined. Spoon into the prepared tin and level the surface. Bake for 2 ½ hours or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 1 hour, then turn out and cool completely on a wire rack. Marshmallow Fondant Covers 2 x 8 x 2-inch cake layers One of the problems with fondant is that it has for most palates an unacceptable taste, it is not easy to make ay home and commercially it is exorbitant, and there may still be taste issues. Rolled marshmallow fondant or MMF for short is an acceptable alternative. The way the sugar is added is important, most recipes say put half the sugar in at once. If you do this and have added the corn then it will clump together. The sugar has been sifted to avoid it becoming crystallized, add the sugar slowly. Ingredients 1lb white mini-marshmallows 2 tablespoons water 2 teaspoons corn syrup (optional) 2 pounds confectioners' or powdered sugar (approx. 8 cups or more), sifted twice ½ cup Crisco shortening or more as needed Instructions If you are using a mixer to knead the MMF, put the marshmallows, and water in the mixer bowl and place over a pan of hot water, make sure that the bowl is not touching the water. Once the mixture has melted cool for about five minutes and place on the mixer stand. Add a little Crisco to the paddle attachments. If you intend to knead the MMF by hand then place the marshmallows and water in the microwave for a half a minute, just long enough to melt them, if they are still not melted pub back in for five seconds and repeat this until they are melted. Take them out and very carefully stir with a wooden spoon, they are very hot and thin and accidents happen easily at this point. Add a little Crisco. If using corn syrup add now and stir with the wooden spoon or the mixer. Add the confectioners’ sugar one cup at a time, and fold in until the mixture is not sticky before adding the next cup. When half the sugar has been incorporated knead by hand for about seven minutes, or use a bread hook on the mixer. Whilst you are kneading dip your hands in a light coating of Crisco and knead it in. Use sparingly to start with, as the finished product will be sticky if you have added too much. Add a little more sugar once the last cup has been incorporated. If it is too hot to do by hand then use a wooden spoon. This mixture will become very stiff and resistant to handling as you add more sugar. Re-grease your hands and rework the MMF until it is smooth and elastic and pliable. The whole process of kneading working the dough and adding the sugar should take about seven or eight minutes by hand. If you are doing it with the dough hook then keep it on low and knead for about four minutes. Basic White Butter Cream 2/3 cup water 4 Tablespoons Meringue Powder 12 cups sifted confectioners' sugar 1-1/4 cups shortening 3/4 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon No Color Almond Extract 1 teaspoon Clear Vanilla Extract 1 teaspoon No Color Butter Flavor Combine water and meringue powder; whip at high speed until peaks form. Add 4 cups of sugar, one cup at a time, beating after each addition at low speed. Alternately add shortening and remainder of sugar. Add salt and flavorings, then beat at low speed until smooth. Chocolate Stars Ingredients 8 (2-oz.) vanilla candy coating squares or almond bark Edible gold luster dust or pearl luster dust White sparkling sugar Edible gold glitter Method Microwave candy coating in a glass bowl on High for 1 1/2 minutes or until melted, stirring twice. Pour candy coating into a wax paper-lined (8-inch) square pan, spreading evenly. Cool at room temperature until firm to the touch (25 to 30 minutes). Cut into star shapes with lightly greased graduated star-shaped cutters. Gently press each point of star, working around star until it can be removed from cutter. Brush gold or pearl luster dust over stars with a small child’s paintbrush. Sprinkle with sparkling sugar and edible glitter. Apricot glaze Apricot glaze for a 10” cake Ingredients 1 cup Apricot preserves Method Heat preserves to boiling, strain well, you do not want pieces of apricot sticking through your top layer of icing Brush on cake while still hot. Let dry. Glaze will dry to a hard finish in 15 minutes or less. To Assemble the Cake Place the largest cake on the cake stand with a little icing underneath the cake to hold it firmly in place and cover with the apricot glaze. Roll out the butter cream fondant and place over the cake’s glaze. Trim the edges of the cake’s icing to the base of the cake board. Star decorating tips are used to make the shells or scrolls that are piped on to the base of the cake to hide the join between the cake and the board. Suggested tips are numbered 14 or 16 use the butter cream white icing. Pipe small stars onto the sides of the cake. Fill a small squeeze bottle with the butter cream and pipe tiny beads around the stars to represent the moons. Then pipe the shell around the top edge of the cake. Cover with the second layer and add the apricot glaze and rolled out fondant icing in the same manner as the bottom tier. Use either the purchased gold fondant icing accents or make the gold chocolate stars and stick to the cake with a little butter cream icing. The pipe an open shell across the edge of the cake. Cover the third tier with the apricot and then the fondant. Mark the edge of the cake as shown in the diagram by the black arrows, use a knife as if cutting the cake into either six or eight pieces, use the slight knife marks as a line to guide where the next stars will be looped. Cut a piece of cotton and hang between the marks and make a mark where the next stars are to be piped. Pipe the stars in butter cream and then pipe the edges with shells Top the cake with your desired topper.