Hello everyone

I've just started out cake decorating as a hobby, currently I am 1/2 way through a cake decorating course and I have signed up to the following section which begins in January.

To get some practice in, I've offered to decorate Christmas cakes for some family and friends where they either make or buy the cake and I just decorate it for them.

The class I am doing is all sugarpaste - royal icing is covered in the class that starts in January. So my intention was to cover all the 'practice' cakes in sugarpaste however my mum has specifically asked for hers to be in royal icing. I've told her that it might not come out too good as it will be my first go at it but she doesn't mind!!

So, my question is, cake you ice a rich fruit cake in royal icing without covering it in marzipan first? I've got a feeling that she is going to say that she doesn't like marzipan, I've not asked yet. If she doesn't want marzipan, should I cover in sugarpaste first, then royal icing?


Any advice is much appriciated! Thank you

I've never covered an entire cake with royal icing but I dont see why you couldn't do it. In fact, thinking back to my Wilton course, I believe they mentioned you could do that (or else I read it somewhere). The difference was that the royal icing gets very hard and will crack when being cut. You could do it without the marzipan. I would probably put a buttercream crumb coat no first and then spread the royal icing although I'm not certain the crumb coat would be required. If that's what your mom wants, go for it. Royal icing covers very well and is fun to work with. You can always flavor it so it's not so boring.

Thanks for the advice

Do you think I could stand sugarpaste figures on top? It wouldn't damage the icing or the colour wouldn't bleed would it? I was thinking royal icing smooth all over, then pipe a little bit of swirl detail on the sides/top edge, and then a couple of choir singers and a tree in sugarpaste placed on top.

I'm somewhat new at caking but I've never heard of icing a cake in just royal icing. I've only used it for decorations on top of bc or fondant. Are you sure your mother knows just what royal icing is and what it taste like?

using royal icing is the traditonal way of covering a fruit cake in britian

You should be able to stand sugar figures on the cake. I just put a sugar icing boat on water made of royal icing and had no problems at all. As Caths_Cakes mentioned, royal icing is a standard in the UK. You'll do fine with your Christmas cakes--don't stress. And don't forget to remind yourself that you're still learning (as we all are) and there will be mistakes and flowers are great for covering those mistakes!