I just got a request via email for a wedding cake made out of Fruitcake covered in Royal icing. Is this some sort of Scottish tradition? Where can I find a good recipe? Thanks in advance for your expert advice

First make sure the request is legit. There's an email scam going around.

and IF it should be legit....

aine2 and our other British and Australian compatriots will be able to give you all kinds of advice

(and yes, it is traditional cake in those areas that held on to British cake traditions)

Totally traditional type of cake on this side of the pond!

Once you make the cake you should feed it with some whiskey and allow to ripen for a few weeks if you have time, this makes it really moist but not a major step if you don't have the time.

The cake is then usually covered in almond paste which is simple to make and goes on like fondant. I would use almond paste rather than marzipan, better taste but just my opinion.

Then you finish the cake with the royal icing. Check out deliaonline.com for the most traditional of recipes. Best of luck!

I covered a cake in royal for a friend from Trinidad once. Make sure you allot enough time for the layers of royal to harden inbetween icings. i think it was something like 6 layers. It actually turned out pretty.

Julia

Yeah, I was gonna say whatever you do GET CRACKING! those things aren't done quickly.

Oh yum!
That is one of the types I am making for my own wedding...the RI is going to be lemon flavored though, and candied pecans everywhere.

Very tasty!

toba garret
had recipes procedures i believe

I had started a thread on this a few months ago but I thinkit was lost in the crash I will try to look up the info and see if it is still there

I read a book recently that described how, I'll check my library history and see if I can remember which one it was...

any way, you want to fill in any holes in the sides and top of the cake with a bit (a little ball) of marzipan. I guess when you bake fruit cake you get craters.

then brush the cake with strained apricot jam.

roll out and cover with marzipan.

if it is round do the first coat around the sides and let dry, then do the first coat on top and let dry, repeat for a minimum of 2 coats but preferably 3 or 4.

if it is square do one side, let dry, do second side, let dry, do third side, let dry, do fourth side, let dry, do top, let dry and repeat

here is a link I found with insructions

http://www.pastrywiz.com/wedding/wedding16.htm

fruitcake can be made up to 3 months in advance as the moistness and flavour will develop, it doesnt need to be fed, just add 1/4 cup brandy/whiskey over hot cake, let it cool in the pan overnight. then just wrap it in cling film then foil and store somewhere cool.
when ready to cover, fill in any hole on cake with marzipan, spray with brandy (easier than heating/straing apricot jam etc) and cover with marzipan.
the royal will take several coats, sugarcraft magazine had a demo of it recently if you can check it out.

I'v looked it up and it's gone!
There was some wonderfull info on there. I think Blakescakes sent a link with a good tutorial on it as well.

I recall that emmascakes does a lot of fruitcakes. Her cakes are beautiful!! You could PM her for advice and recipes, I bet!

Hi Melissamon,

This is a recipe my mom uses (all her three daughters wedding cakes, our bithday cakes and just because cake). Her fruit cakes are the best, I have no problem giving it to you because your, like mine, will never taste like hers . It's pretty simple:

1 pound butter, softened
1 pound dark brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp almond extract
1 tsp rose or orange water
1 pound cake or sifted all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
(or 2 tsp mixed spice - I get this from the Jamaican store)
1 cup fine bread crumbs
12 eggs - room temperature
1 tbsp lemon zest or 2 tsp lemon juice
1 cup brandy (can be fruit flavor)*
1 cup dark rum*
4-8 table spoon browing or molases
6-8 cups of fruits (raisins, currants, citron, cherries, prune, pitted dated) is is stewed and soaked in wine and rum for a few months and some of the fruits is blended or processed into a pulp.

* You can reduce this to your liking, or use 1 cup of sweet red wine, sherry, or port wine.

1. Preheat oven to 300-degrees F. Grease and flour a ten inch and an eight inch x 3" cake tin. Line with wax paper. Set aside
2. Sift together flour and dry ingredients then mix in bread crumbs and set aside.
3.Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
4. Add eggs one at a time, if stat curdeling add a table spoon of flour.
6. Add vanilla and other flavorings with lemon zest. Mix wines together with soaked fruits.
7. Alternately add flour mixture and fruits ending with flour mixture.
8. Stir in browning/molasses to the desired colour.
9. Pour in prepared pan and bake at 300-degrees F for 20 mins, then reduce to 290-degrees F for one our (my mom bakes for about 2 hours) or until a tester comes out clean. You may place a deep cookie pan in oven filled with water on the lower shelf to help with steaming cakes.

Cake can be baked way in advance, and wrap in wax paper, and then with foil paper or stored wrapped in a covered cake tin. Daily spray or brush with rum or brandy to keep moist.

Cover cake with almond paste and cover with a thin layer of royal icing (add 1 tsp glecrine to keep icing soft). Allow to dry. Cover again with another layer of royal icing. This can be done over a course of three days. I usually add rose water or almond extract to flavour icing.

I am writing this from memory and hope this helps. My mom baked my wedding cake, and we had to give it to the lady decorating it at least a week before so it could be iced and dry. The icing is not hard, soft and mellow.

Cheers!

Jeannie

Actually fresh fruitcakes are Wonderful!! I use a recipe from the BBC. It's called Marzipan Fruit Cake and I've got a friend from across the pond who will only eat my fruitcake. I will put the liquor on it when it comes out of the oven and once it's cooled, I wrap it and put it in the fridge. Two days later I will brush a layer of simple syrup/liquor and the next day I will cover in apricot jam and marzipan.

I've done tropical fruitcakes with coconut, pineapple, tangerines and soaked in coconut rum. I've also done fruitcakes with "regular dried fruit" and it's fantastic-dried apples, blueberries, cherries and cranberries. However, my English friend will not touch any of these cakes-only the traditional ones.

If you need any recipes just pm me or email.

Kathy

You are welcome! Let me know how it turns out.

Hi,
It will interest me to know how old the couple are! Traditionally years ago, this was how everyone's cakes were - fruit cake, covered in marzipan then RI. At my own wedding in 99 we had fruit cake for the bottom tier but it was marzipan and then fondant. People of my mother's generation LOVE royal icing, infact in 2 years, the only time I've had to do it on a cake was for my mother's christmas cake. These days people tend not to have it just because it can sometimes go sooooooooooooo hard you can't cut it (add glycerine I think to make it go less hard!) Also, it is much more expensive as it takes so long to do - ice the top, leave overnight. Ice the sides, leave overnight, then back to the top and yes, it can take several layers!! I posted a fruitcake recipe a while back that I use all the time as it's dead easy and lovely and moist. Anything else that you want to know about RI, fruitcakes etc please feel free to PM me.
Jenny

this thread is actually very interesting because one of my nieces wanted her birthday cake to be covered in RI.

The cake was a 9" round chocolate cake so i wasn't prepared to cover it with marzipan (expensive) and then spend all of that time covering it with layers of RI.

Then, I remembered that my cake decorating instructor showed the class how to cover a cake with Rolled Royal Icing some time ago...so, i am going to make contact with her and hopefully she can show me the technique again.

I will let you guys know how it turns out.

i love fruit cake!

I know it is not common to love it so much.

I am Canadian so our fruit cake it much like what you would get in the UK, like the recipes above.

I can understand why Americans have an aversion to fuit cake though. My DH knows how much I love it and bought me a giant one in the USA last Christmas and it was so gross, nothing like these lovely UK recipes.

To all fruitcake hating Americans: I beg you to give it one more try, it will be an "ah ha" moment once you sink your teeth into a moist rich UK fruitcake. There is noting like it.

How funny, I just made 6in & a 9in whisky and drambuie fruitcakes today for my parents Silver Wedding cake on 24th September - yes, it does take that long to make them taste perfect (IMO!). Unfortunately we can't be there for the party (we live abroad), so the cakes will come with me in August to the UK where I will marzipan, fondant ice and decorate them, then the cake will happily live (boxed!) in their garage until their silver wedding, no problem whatsoever - I love it!

We start buying fruits for next year's cake after Thanksgiving.

Now I remember what I forgot to add to the recipe, mincedmeat. I'm not sure how much my mom adds to her fruit mixture. Her kitchen is filled with jars and containers of fruits soaking in rum and brandy to make fruit cake.

Cheers

Jeannie

Hi
I am Scottish and just wanted to add my tuppence worth to the thread. Personally I can't stand dried fruit of any kind never mind a fruit cake but my husband adores it and i have made loads of fruitcakes without actually tasting them - but i'm told they are great!! I roughly follow a recipe ( i will post it if you want) but never stick to it - i add fruit to finish off packets and substitute things i can't get hold of but it is usually a combination of sultanas, currants, cherries, mixed lemon & orange peel, almonds etc. I go with what looks and feels correct. The secret in my opinion is the liquid. I always 'steep' -for want of a good Scottish word sorry soak all the fruit overnight in a mixture of brandy and orange juice ( i put them in a plastic tub, put the lid on then turn it over every so often - saves time mixing) DO NOT skimp on the brandy and juice - the fruit will stop soaking when saturated but if you don't add enough then it can't be absorbed. This saves you having to feed the cake. Still add the liquid suggested in the recipe when making the cake - your cake may take slightly longer to cook but will be lovely and moist. Also tradition dictates you use marzipan - forgive me for teaching my granny to suck eggs but under no circumstances allow the marzipan to come in contact with flour as this can cause mold to form in the cake (unseen from the outside) roll out on icing sugar. As for the royal icing - i've not ventured that far yet - i'm a bit of a novice with decorating.
Hope this helps - good luck