Gorgeously Golden Fruit Cake

Asked by raekate.69. Answered on 27th March 2013

Full question

I am hoping to make Nigella's Gorgeously Golden Fruitcake for my parents 60th wedding anniversary and was wondering if this can be iced with marzipan and royal icing successfully. If not, would there be a suggested alternative at all please? Thank you so much for such a wonderful website.

Our answer

Nigella's Gorgeously Golden Fruitcake (from Christmas) is a gluten free fruitcake amde with dried pears and apricots. In the recipe it is topped with blanched (skinned) whole almonds. It would be possible to cover the cake with marzipan and royal icing or ready to roll out fondant icing, however the surface can be a little potted so you may prefer to fill the dimples on the surface of the cake with small pieces of marzipan to give a smoother finish. Also upturn the cake so that the base becomes the top as it will be slightly flatter. You can marzipan and ice the cake up to a week in advance.

As an alternative you could consider the almond topping, or even use glace cherries - the golden yellow glace cherries could look particularly nice. Both nuts and cherries shold be put onto the cake batter before baking.

We would however mention that this cake can be a little crumbly to slice as it is gluten free. So please don't expect very neat, small, wedding cake type slices. Nigella suggests that the cake should be cut into fat slices (approximately 10) or you could break it into smaller chunks.