Gloverly Cupcakes

I just can’t resist making more than one Christmas cake each year, so once again this one will be a Christmas present for our best friends. I chose to make some cute little gnomes and add some other pops of colour and some snowflakes. Click here to see some more pics.

I used Delia Smiths Christmas cake recipe this year for both my Christmas cakes, it’s definitely my favourite. I love icing fruit cakes because the marzipan layer gives it a really nice firm base to put the fondant onto, which definitely makes things easier.

I bought some polystyrene balls a while ago for cake and craft stuff and really wanted to have a go at covering them and using them on a cake. I watched some videos on YouTube and had a go. They were actually quite easy to do. You just roll out some icing into a flat circle, brush the outside of the ball with some water and place it in the middle of the icing, then carefully smooth and shape the icing around the ball. Then as you keep smoothing it, gather the excess into a point and trim it off. The roll the ball around between your hands to make it smooth. Then let it dry and insert a wooded skewer if you need to, to attach it to the cake. I added some snowflakes and sprinkles for the finishing touches.