I drizzled more of the Bells into the top every week, as per instrucions and finally came to make the marzipan last week. Using Aunty Mike's trusty recipe would have been a great idea, and a wonderful tribute to her amazing simnel cakes, but alas, not only did I forget to use apricot jam to stick the marzipan to the cake (no idea what final consequences this will have, and the annoying thing is that I had a lovely new jar of jam especially for the occasion!) but I also managed to use caster sugar instead of icing sugar!! Don't ask me how, I'd even got a new packet of icing sugar specially - but there you are! So I ended up with a batch of very tasty but very crunchy marzipan, sticking to the cake for dear life:
and finally came the big day for the 'royal' icing. And, with a little help from my friends:
the deed was done . . .
After much discussion we went for the frosty top look
but which little people to put on the top from this aged motley collection?
. . . sorry Santa
can't wait for a slice tomorrow! x
ReplyDeleteLove your blog Gill, I shall be following this from now on! My Mum also attempted a Christmas cake this year, I think it must have weighed approximately 6 tonnes. She went for a more bleak approach to the icing than yours, with a sole tree and Santa in one corner on smooth icing, like Scott of the Antarctic in the wilderness! We had also been talking about the Sheffield Carols this year, we went to the Royal Hotel in Dungworth last year but we missed the Carols and we weren't sure when to go. It's funny as I said just last week that the one person I knew who would know where and when was best to go was Gill Hughes, and here you are talking about them on a blog! I'll have to ask you next year when we should go. Anyway, hope you are well, looking forward to future updates from the blog.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind comments stevywonder! This is the best website for locating the carols each year: http://www.localcarols.org.uk/ Click on 'This year's sings' to get the venues and times. Looking foward to seeing you there next year!
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