How to marzipan bird cage shaped cake

Yesterday I shared with you my Christmas cake, shaped like a bird cage. Today I am showing you how I marzipan it. I decided to place each cake section on a 15cm diameter, 2mm thick cake board so that when it comes to serving it I can cut manageable slices instead of very thin long slices. I am pretty happy with the results and definitely found my new rolling pin measures gave me a more even layer of marzipan. Next up is icing it! Not looking forward to that.....

How to marzipan bird cage shaped cake
Ingredients

• Gluten free birdcage shaped Christmas cake
• Marzipan
• Apricot jam

Method

• Lightly sieve icing sugar on to your work top
• Knead 500g of marzipan until soft and pliable, and roll into a ball
• Using a rolling pin, roll out marzipan, turning the marzipan around after every few rolls so it stays in a rough circle and does not stick to your work top
• Roll until about 5mm thick. I used rolling pin measures to get a super even layer of marzipan

• Place half ball cake onto cake board
• Get cake level on board and fill in any gaps by pushing marzipan into them
• Gently heat jam in microwave
• Brush jam over entire cake

• Carefully lift up marzipan and place on cake
• Very lightly run your hands over marzipan so it adheres to the jam
• Using a sharp knife, cut off excess marzipan from bottom of cake
• Place to one side

• Lightly sieve icing sugar on to your work top
• Knead 500g of marzipan until soft and pliable, and roll into a sausage shape
• Using a rolling pin, roll out marzipan, turning marzipan around after every few rolls so it stays in a rectangle and does not stick to your work top
• Check it will fit the height and circumference of your cakes (the height of my two cakes was just about the size of my cake smoother)
• Roll until about 5mm thick

• Place each cake on to a cake board and stack on top of each other
• Gently heat jam in microwave
• Brush jam over entire cake
• Carefully lift up marzipan and place on cake. Very lightly run your hands over marzipan so it adheres to the jam

• Using a sharp knife, cut off excess marzipan from top and bottom of cake
• The ends will overlap, so using a sharp knife cut a straight line down through both layers of marzipan and remove excess marzipan from either side of your line
• Using a cake smoother, smooth ends together so that join starts to disappear
• Place marzipan half ball cake on top of marzipan stacked cakes and gently smooth marzipan at bottom of half cake to marzipan at top of the stacked cakes

Have a sweet day!