This years cake was inspired by the ribbon I purchased on a Christmas stall. As usual I had no idea how I was going to decorate the cake. Unlike lots of avid cake decorators, I don't sit down and draw out a design but wait for some inspiration to rain down on me. Hubby often asks how I am going to decorate the cake and more often than not, I am clueless until the last minute.
I made my usual cake recipe and this year chose to ice the cake in ivory sugarpaste. The holly leaves are cut out and left to dry over night on crumpled up tin foil. I then brushed the leaves with gold lustre, wet the edges of the leaves and sprinkled over some disco edible glitter. The holly berries are moistened and rolled in red glitter.
All so very easy and achievable too. Sometimes with cake decorations less is more and the photograph doesn't really do the cake justice.
Tip: Using a silicone mat (I bought mine from Lidl) helps when rolling out sugarpaste it doesn't stick so easily. I use cornflour to lightly dust the silicone mat and rolling pin instead of icing sugar. The reasoning is that using icing sugar dries out the sugarpaste. Also a shiny surface is easily achieved with cornflour.