Merry Christmas All!    Would be grateful if everyone could hit me with their best suggestions for preparing a fruit cake before covering it with fondant.

I usually use royal icing to fill holes and smooth out as best as I can, plus I invert the cake so the bottom is the top, and neaten up the bottom edge by plugging the gap with fondant.

I don't like to have a marzipan layer so I'm after any tips to help neaten the surface of the fruit cake as much as possible.

Thanks in advance!

Setty

if I do a fruit cake without marzipan I use two layers of fondant. the prep is the same as yours I don use royal icing though, but some fondant.

 if you do a layer of fondant and leave it for 24 hours, then add another layer it gives a beautiful finish.

I thought about doing the 2 layers but I've got 3 to do plus another 3 cakes this month and I'm going to be short on time as it is. They are just for friends so I'm not worried about an unhappy client - mainly a frustrated decorator

Cheers for your input.