Royal Icing

Sunday Blessings Lovelies

a very thought provoking yet festive morning at church

 as we sang Christmas hymns in praise of the Lord

Back home MrD continued with his wood working 

Family gathered round, icing Christmas cake

Liskeard, Cornwall, England.- December 1941

For me it was time to ice our Christmas Cake..

while listening to the dulcet tones of Mr Bing Crosby..

with festive tunes like this

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen 1942

My preferred icing for my Christmas cake is a very old recipe. Royal Icing from Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management first published in the 1860s. My grandmother used it..as did her mother... so why change a good thing 

You can have a smooth finish to the icing.. and use some in piping if you're so inclined. But I kept it simple and fluffed it up a bit.. in an attempt to make it look like snow. This amount covers a small cake.. you can easily double the amount. And dont forget Royal Icing is brilliant for cookie decorating too

Just remember this piping takes at least four hours to dry hard.. so dont lay anything on top for a while

½  lb. of icing sugar

1 teaspoonful of lemon-juice

1 white of egg.

• Put the white of egg into a basin
• Add the sugar gradually and work well with a wooden spoon. 
• When the preparation presents a smooth, white brilliant appearance add the lemon-juice
• Use as required.
• Leave to dry for at least four hours 

Wartime Mock Marzipan

Happy Saturday Lovelies

Well today it was time to start icing my Christmas cake.. and you can't have a British Christmas Cake without a marzipan layer between the top of the cake and the icing... even in wartime.

This recipe for Mock Marzipan comes from the 1945 Ministry of Food leaflet.. and quite honestly I really like it.

I used the syrup instead of sugar.. and I used plain flour instead of soya as I couldn’t justify the expense of buying something I probably wouldnt use again. But it turned out great and I loved the taste. It was very soft to roll.. but after chilling for a couple of hours it was much firmer. And while not quite the same as real marzipan, it was a really good substitute.

This recipe will cover a small fruit cake... so I doubled it for mine. Now its drying til tomorrow until its dry enough to ice

1 tablespoon water
1 oz. margarine
1 teaspoon ratafia or almond essence
2 oz. sugar or syrup
2 oz. soya flour

• Melt margarine in water
• Add essence and sugar, then soya flour. 
• Turn on to a board and knead well.
• Roll out the marzipan to the size of the top of your Christmas cake
• Brush the top of your cake with your favourite jam...apricot is lovely
• Carefully place the marzipan on top.. flattening the outside to make a neat edge
• Allow to dry before decorating the top with royal, fondant.. or even Mock Icing