I'm doing my first ever fruit cake (spice cake?) and the recipient doesn't like marzipan - can I just do 2 layers of icing? Or should I still do a thin layer of marzipan?
I feel really silly for asking such a basic question, but I've never been a fan of fruitcake, so I don't know anything about it 
You can do two layers of fondant. The marzipan is really only to give you a nice smooth neat finish to ice, as fruit cakes tend to have a uneven surface, usually and traditionally with royal icing, but with fondant you can just do two layers. If you wanted you could cover with one layer of fondant and then royal icing is also an option.
Thank you, Scrummy! This is exactly what I needed to know 
It's people like you that make this a fantastic site - giving clear and precise answers and fantastic support. Thank you again!
You are welcome Sweety. We all have to learn from somewhere and I am not too sure that many people on here make a lot of fruit cakes as they tend to be very English 
just want to pipe in , the marzipan is also there to stop any of the dark moist colours of the cake leaching into your royal or rolled icing ontop 
traditionally the cake was covered with marzipan and left for a week to dry before adding the royal icing. i personally wouldnt do two layers of icing, i would just do one thicker layer. i LOVE making fruit cake, it makes me feel christmassy lol
Yes Cath I personally would only do one layer but as this is her first fruit cake it might be better for her to do two thin layers rather than one thicker one, just incase any accidents accur. And Cath you are so right about the colour bleeding I was in a hurry when I posted before so just posted a quick answer. Marzipan also helps with the flavour and moisture as it acts as a great seal and airtight container
Oooh. That's an interesting point - I didn't think of the fruit leeching into the icing... How long does that take? The cake won't be fondant iced until Wednesday(ish) and is being delivered on Saturday. The customer did say that they don't mind having a thin layer of marzipan, if it causes too mich of a problem
You would be fine with no marzipan if you use a thin layer of fondant instead of the marzipan, leave it overnight (or until you are ready to cover) to dry out them cover with your top layer of fondant. The fruit won't stain through both layers, it very rarely (unless very moist or soaked in a lot of alchol) leaches through.
Uuhhm.. Yeah.. There's quite a bit of brandy in it! Lol. I think I'll chuck a thin layer of marzipan on it, (just to be on the safe side).
Thank you ever so much guys, I can't tell you how much I appreciate your help. I'm just praying that the cake itself tastes good - I used Lindy's recipe, from her book, but it seems really quite pale...
ive experimented with a few different cake recipes, never lindys though, can you show me the recipe? i bounce between delia smiths christmas cake recipe, and the Bero book dundee cake recipe, both are great but ive noticed delias cake is lighter than the bero, which comes a deep brown, but i use more brandy than stated, How ever like delia smith says, a cake with so many nice things inside cant possibly fail to taste good, im sure it will be great!
I use myown recipe so never really know what others look like but the colour tends to come from the amount of black treacle, brown sugar and spices in the cake. I use tons of liquor in my fruit cakes and never have any leeching.
ive only had the problem once, i didnt use marzipan, and i covered it with white icing, i had these weird brown spots develop, so i switched to using marzipan underneath, it was quite a thin layer of white as well, i think as long as you put a decent sized layer on it should be ok
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