ALMOND ICING FOR THE CHRISTMAS CAKE

Now is the time to make the almond icing for the Christmas Cake I made some weeks ago.

Ingredients

100g/4 oz Icing Sugar
100g/4 oz Caster Sugar
200g/8 oz Ground Almonds
Few drops Vanilla essence
Few drops Almond essence
One Free range egg
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Optional: 1 teaspoon orange flower water

Method

Sieve the sugars and add the ground almonds, mixing well.
Add the beaten eggs and flavourings and mix to a soft paste.
Knead the paste until it is quite smooth.
If it is not to be used immediately wrap in cling film to prevent it drying out.

How to use

Unwrap your stored Christmas cake and brush the surface and sides with beaten egg white or sieved melted apricot jam.

The matured cake

Dust the worktop with sieved icing sugar and roll out the almond icing into a large circle.

Use your rolling pin to pick up the paste by rolling it over the pin.
Hold it above the cake and  gently unroll,  covering the top and down the sides.

Lightly roll the top to make the icing stick and press the sides to make it adhere to the cake. 

 I use a clean jam jar to roll around the outside, this ensures that the paste sticks and air bubbles are removed.
Leave to dry overnight before covering with Royal Icing.