Marzipan
Well I've made up the marzipan finally. Took a touch longer than I thought it was going to but as it was my first attempt what was I to know. The consistency isn't quite the same as almond and I wonder if I should have ground the nuts in smaller quantities first and then put them all together and added in the icing sugar.
Trifle
We are having a works xmas buffet on Friday and I am now thinking about making a couple of trifles for it. The recipe is one of Fanny Craddocks and has layers of alcohol laced swiss roll, custard, chocolate, piped cream and topped with fruit. I much prefer it over the standard trifle that seems to prevalent these days and makes my mouth water everytime I think about it - hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm trifle.
Xmas Cakes
Got these iced after digging out good old Mrs Beeton.
Here is a breakdown of one of the special ones though:
Well here is the cake that I am starting off with. You can't see it but there are ridges on the tree to indicate the various branches.
Here is a batch of the pistachio marzipan I made. I found though that I did have to use more corn syrup than the basic requirement on the recipe though so something to bear in mind if you are reading this and going to attempt it yourself.
Also while I remember - the only place I could track down corn syrup was "Partridges" which is based in Chelsea, London.
And here is the finished article. I'll be icing it tomorrow night with green icing to make it look like a proper tree and then adding on decorations etc so it looks like a real Xmas tree. I bought some silver balls and sprinkles etc though was going to use that for a trifle I made for a friend the other week.
Yvonne - drop me an e-mail for the recipe and if you're the same Yvonne and I get the opportunity I'll make one for the next show!
