Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse…
INGREDIENTS
- 1 rich fruit cake (about 900 g)
- 800 g marzipan
- 75 g apricot jam, heated
- 800 g white ready-to-roll sugar paste icing
- Edible food gels (black, brown, purple, pink)
- Gold and silver dragées
- Icing sugar, for dusting
You will need
- Christmas biscuit cutter, small paintbrush, cocktail sticks and fondant smoother
METHOD
1. Turn the fruitcake upside down on a board so the top becomes fl at. Roll half the marzipan into a long sausage and use to plug the gaps along the bottom. Use a palette knife to ensure the marzipan is flush with the cake.
2. Heat the apricot jam and spread a thin layer over the cake. Dust the surface with icing sugar and roll out the remaining marzipan, plus any left from filling the gaps to a large round approximately 30 cm in diameter. Place over the cake, smooth the top and sides, and trim the
excess. Brush the marzipan with a little water and repeat with 600 g of the white sugar paste, covering the cake. Re-roll the excess and cut a shape to decorate – we chose an angel. Stick in the middle with a little water.
3. Take 50 g of the remaining sugar paste and colour 20 g brown, 10 g black, 10 g purple and 10 g pink. Cut a small piece of icing from the side of the cake and fi ll it in with the brown. Add some texture with a cocktail stick to resemble cake. Add small pieces of the black and purple paste to look like dried fruit, securing with a little water. Decorate the edge with gold and silver dragées, and finish with a ribbon.
4. To make the mouse, roll 130 g of the white paste into a fat sausage shape. Just above the halfway point, roll and indent with your fi nger, to separate out a body and a head. With the smaller part (the head), gently pull the paste into a point, this will be the nose of the mouse. Place next to the cake and position the head by bending slightly. Insert a cocktail skewer to create a mouth.
5. Divide the remaining white paste into
6. and roll 4 into thin sausage-shapes for the arms and legs. Fix to the mouse with a little water. Use a tiny bit of pink for the nose and a little for the ears, then roll the rest into a tail, place behind the mouse and arrange over its body.
6. Make the ears by rolling the white and pink paste into balls, fl atten and lay the pink over the white, pinching at the base. Secure with water or edible glue. Roll 2 pieces of black for the mouse’s eyes and repeat with white for eyebrows. Sprinkle any leftover paste to look like crumbs, and place a piece in the mouse’s hand.
Serves 20 • Ready in 2 hr
ALSO SEE
ALSO SEE MILLIONAIRE’S TRIFLE RECIPE
