Friday 11 December 2020

Fondant Fancies [And Tiny Feet]

 I try to make my Christmas Cake interesting and different each year - even though I always stand my little Nativity figures on the top.

Here's a selection from Christmases Past. Looking for inspiration a few weeks back, I looked at Pinterest. I try not to indulge in that too often- it can be a dreadful time waster. But there were quite a few with a Nativity scene on top - and a sort of 'frieze' of Bethlehem round the sides. Like these ones

I particularly liked this one with blue icing and a starry sky

Having made and marzipanned my cake, I settled down to decorate it. I had the figures, and I bought fondant icing, blue and yellow colouring, and a pot of golden stars.
I'd been told by a friend who makes celebration cakes that you should knead the colouring into the fondant, little by little, till the lot is an even colour. 
An hour later, I'd managed to work about half a bottle of colouring into the fondant and it was still a sky blue, not the rich saxe blue I'd hoped for. After a further forty minutes, with the remaining 25% of the fondant, I had some pale yellow icing. I'd set myself up with a large bowl and was working in front of the TV. I saw two whole episodes of West Wing from nearly 20 years ago.
I moved into the kitchen, and rolled out the blue to cover the cake. That was OK. Then I took my little paper design which I'd precut from paper, and tried to cut out my houses. They fell apart. I rolled it thicker and tried again. In retrospect, I think I should have made them thin, and let them dry out a bit, then applied them to the cake.  Hindsight is a wonderful thing!

But Mary and Joseph, plus baby Jesus, finally got onto the cake, with the Magi looking on[I decided against making a stable, after family comments a couple of years back about Bus Shelters in Macclesfield]. I poked golden stars into the sky and found a few silver balls to decorate the properties. I added a few blue front doors and marked other details with a knife and a piping tube. Next year, there will just be a ribbon round the cake. And the icing will probably be white!
We had a lovely Christmas greeting from Manchester this morning. When Steph said on the phone that George was helping her make her cards, I had no idea that they were making these clever mistletoe footprints. I hope he grows up to be as good at art as his Mum. 


Have you iced your cake yet? Is it plain or fancy?






9 comments:

  1. The same problem when making playdough - however much food colouring it never gets darker so I presume there are special darker colourings in specialist cake shops.
    I'm going rogue this year - no marzipan or icing at all!

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    1. That's probably better for the waistline. I avoid specialist cake shops, as the extra bits &pieces double the cost of the finished products! I used a cheapo bottle of DrOetker from the supermarket

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  2. What a lovely card with George's mistletoes on it! Your cakes are works of art, too! Um, no cake, here! Haven't made a Christmas cake in years! Enjoy a slice for me, too, please!

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    1. I will do Bless - not cutting it till Boxing Day though

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  3. I think you did a lovely job of it! I have never worked with fondant but it's something I plan on trying in the new year.

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  4. No cake here either, though we do enjoy a slice occasionally. Lovely mistletoe card!

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  5. Your cakes are beautiful and I love the Nativity set you use. The figures are simple and charming. You did a lot of work on all of them ( the cakes).

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  6. Hahhaha, Mistletoes!! Clever Steph!! I love a good wordplay joke! It's very clever too!
    I do think your cake looks great but it's weird that it wouldn't go to the colour you wanted. I DO remember Bus stop gate from a few years ago and it made me laugh!
    I typed a similar comment to this, this morning on the train but as I typed, I leaned forward and put my head against the handlebars of my bike. I then tried to lean back and discovered I had inexplicably got a strand of my hair, very close to my head, caught in the brakes handle and because my hair was tightly plaited and I couldn't move, found it really hard to untangle myself, much to the amusement of the woman on my right who clocked what was happening when I squeaked. Luckily, I got free in the end, but your comment was somehow lost in the process!

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  7. The thought of you, head down, diligently typing - then discovering you're attached to the bike by your hair, has reduced me to giggles. I'm sorry, it must have been dreadful at the time. What if you'd got to the station, and still been entangled? I expect the other passenger would have helped if you'd been really stuck. Perhaps you should keep your cycle helmet on in the train? (but that might be complicated with a mask as well...)

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