Hi everyone,

I'm making a three tier fruitcake, covered in royal icing for my sister's wedding. We live in the UK where royal icing is used very frequently to cover a fruitcake. I have also made an orange juiced fruitcake and a gluten free fruitcake as stand alone cakes to sit on either side of the main cake. I will be icing the two stand alone cakes with a touch of glycerine.

I am not dwelling the main three tier cake - each cake is roughly 3 or 4-5'' high - as I have been reliably told by a royal icing expert that the royal icing, minus the glycerine, will make the cake very strong and supportive of itself. I have considered dowelling the three tier cake and adding glycerine, but as I'm the maid of honour I won't be able to set it up on the day - as well as the fact that it may damage the fruitcake, i.e. crumble. I'll be able to have each cake iced separately and left down with the reception manor house the night before.

The wedding is next Friday. I will be marzipaning the cake today and icing the cake on Sunday or Monday. Now, if I marzipan the cakes today, can I put them into air tight containers to dry or how should I store them prior to icing? When it comes time to icing, how should I store the drying cakes? Do I put them in cardboard boxes, or an airtight container - or would that damage the icing - i.e. too much humidity?

After the cakes are fully dry, should I wrap them in cling film, or parchment paper, or tin foil before placing into either a cardboard box or airtight container? The icing is to be rustic, not smooth or flat, so it'll be a little chunky in parts because my sister wants it like that. 

This is my very first wedding cake. I have made many fruitcakes in the past, however. I've never used glycerine on my icing before, but I will be using it for the two separate cakes. I know that some consider royal icing to hard to eat, but I guess we British and Irish just fancy the crunch.

I did add glycerine to icing on a practice cake yesterday and although it tasted nice, the smell was terrible. I think that the metal mixing bowl may have soiled the icing, maybe because it was washed incorrectly. I'll be using a very clean ceramic mixing bowl for the actual cakes, so hopefully this will eliminate any foul smells. Surely it wasn't the glycerine, which smells fine.

I'd appreciate any advice that you can offer me concerning the marzipaning and icing stages please. Thanks so much in advance!

I am sorry that I have no idea.  In the US, we do not cover fruit cakes with marzipan or royal icing. Maybe one of our Brit members will see this post and help.

When I marzipan a fruit cake I leave it to set up for a few hours and then cover it with cling film. I have not made royal for many years but I don’t recall it going rock hard even with no glycerine. I would store the cakes once covered in Tupperware containers if possible.