Apricot Glaze

Place ½ cup apricot jam and ¼ cup of whisky, brandy or vodka into a saucepan and heat on a medium setting until jam has melted.

Strain the apricot glaze rubbing the jam through the sieve with the back of a wooden spoon.

Trimming the Cakes

Sometimes the cakes need to be trimmed a little if they have risen to high. Using a serrated edged knife trim any excess from the top of the cake. The cake can then can even be turned upside down and placed onto boards

Preparing Cake Boards

The cake boards can be purchased from specialty icing shops and come in a range of shapes and sizes. You will need one large thick silver paper covered board for the cake to sit on and it needs to be approximately 10cm wider than the base cake. One large and one small thin silver cardboard boards are also needed for the cakes to sit on to keep them separate from each other (measure cakes and purchase boards that are the same size or a little smaller.

The cakes cannot just be placed onto the silver boards, especially if they are decorated ahead of the event. Spread a little prepared royal icing onto the large silver paper covered board and place a circle or baking paper the same size as the cake onto it as shown in photograph.

The silver cardboard boards that go in between the cakes also need to be lined with paper but as you can see in the photograph the baking paper is measured so that is covers the whole of the boards.

Placing the Cakes onto the Prepared Boards

Place one of the large cakes onto the large silver paper lined board. Place the other large and one of the small cakes each onto the smaller silver cardboard boards that are suitable for their respective sizes. Brush the cakes lightly on the top and sides with the prepared apricot glaze.

Covering the Cakes with Fondant Icing:

The cakes are covered with Fondant Icing for several reasons:

To prevent the crumbs from the cake getting mixed up in the royal icing that will be the final coating.

The fondant icing will help to keep the cake fresh and moist.

It will also give a good base to spread the Royal icing onto easily and quickly.

For each 20cm cake you will need 1kg of the Fondant Icing.

For each 25cm cake you will need 1.5kg of the Fondant Icing.

Rolling Out the Fondant Icing

Measure the cake to be iced, across the top and down the 2 sides and use this as a guide to how large to roll out the icing.
Lightly knead the Fondant Icing on a board dusted with pure icing sugar. Shape into a ball and using a large rolling pin, roll out the icing to approximately the same size as the measurement of the cake to be covered. Roll the Fondant Icing onto the rolling pin and carefully lift it onto the cake, smoothing it on the top and easing it gently onto the sides. Dust a little pure icing sugar onto your hands and gently rub the icing to make is reasonably smooth. Trim any excess icing with a sharp knife and keep the scraps. The icing doesn’t need to be perfect just reasonably smooth.

Placing Wooden Skewers to Support Cake

Place a circle of baking paper marked with the guide spots for the placement of the wooden skewers to support the cakes and mark the cake.

Push the pointed end of the wooden skewers into the cake.

Remove the wooden skewers and place them back into the same spots but upside down (the pointed end should now be showing. Mark the skewers with a pen and ONLY remove the skewers one at a time, trim just above the marking.

Make sure each of the skewers once measured and cut is returned to the same spot.

The skewers are put into only 3 of the cakes, the top layer doesn’t require any skewers as it won’t have another cake sitting on it.

Assembling the Cake

To ensure the cakes won’t slip off each other spread a little royal icing over the 3 cakes with the skewers. Place the two large cakes on top of each other and repeat with the small cakes as shown in photograph. Brush the gap in between the cakes with a little vodka.

Using the scraps of Fondant Icing left over from covering the cake, roll pieces of the icing into sausage shapes and use to plug up the gap between the cakes as shown in photograph.

Using a large spatula spread a generous layer of the royal icing onto the sides and top of the cakes. Smooth the icing as much as possible using the back of the spatula in long even strokes. Allow icing to set preferably overnight.

Place a plastic piping nozzle into a piping bag and fill with the prepared royal icing. Pipe heart shapes onto the cake as shown in photograph. If hearts are a bit to difficult simply pipe on some contemporary squiggles. Using a pair of tweezers, place 3 purchased diamantes onto the heart shapes (remember to remove the diamantes before cutting up the cake as they are not edible).
Allow the cake to set for at least 2-3 hours before decorating with flowers.