Defrosting Fruit Cake

Our answer

Nigella's Traditional Christmas Cake (from CHRISTMAS) is a rich fruit cake. These keep quite well and can also be frozen for up to one year. If the cake is frozen we suggest thawing it up to 4 weeks in advance of the wedding date, though it could be less time and it depends on how much time you need to decorate the cake. The most important thing is that the cake is completely thawed and at room temperature before you start to put on a marzipan layer or ice it. If the cake is too cold then you could get beads of condensation on the icing.

To thaw the cake, leave it a cool place for 24 hours then unwrap it and re-wrap it in a double layer of baking parchment (parchment paper) and a double layer of foil and leave it in a cool place until you are ready to ice it. You may want to feed the cake with a little alcohol of your choice and if you do this allow an extra day or so for the alcohol to soak in before you start icing the cake.