Bird cage cake

Method

To decorate

1. Lightly sieve icing sugar on to your work top Knead 500g of marzipan until soft and pliable, and roll into a ball Using a rolling pin, roll out marzipan, turning the marzipan around after every few rolls so it stays in a rough circle and does not stick to your work top Roll until about 5mm thick. I used rolling pin measures to get a super even layer of marzipan

2. Place half ball cake onto cake board Get cake level on board and fill in any gaps by pushing marzipan into them Gently heat jam in microwave Brush jam over entire cake

3. Carefully lift up marzipan and place on cake Very lightly run your hands over marzipan so it adheres to the jam Using a sharp knife, cut off excess marzipan from bottom of cake Place to one side

4. Lightly sieve icing sugar on to your work top Knead 500g of marzipan until soft and pliable, and roll into a sausage shape Using a rolling pin, roll out marzipan, turning marzipan around after every few rolls so it stays in a rectangle and does not stick to your work top Check it will fit the height and circumference of your cakes (the height of my two cakes was just about the size of my cake smoother) Roll until about 5mm thick

5. Place each cake on to a cake board and stack on top of each other Gently heat jam in microwave Brush jam over entire cake Carefully lift up marzipan and place on cake. Very lightly run your hands over marzipan so it adheres to the jam

6. Using a sharp knife, cut off excess marzipan from top and bottom of cake The ends will overlap, so using a sharp knife cut a straight line down through both layers of marzipan and remove excess marzipan from either side of your line Using a cake smoother, smooth ends together so that join starts to disappear Place marzipan half ball cake on top of marzipan stacked cakes and gently smooth marzipan at bottom of half cake to marzipan at top of the stacked cakes

7. Lightly sieve icing sugar on to your work top Knead 500g of white icing until soft and pliable Using a tooth pick, add a drop of food colouring Knead icing until the colour is completely even

8. Roll icing into a round shape Using a rolling pin, roll out icing, turning the icing so it stays in a rough circle and does not stick to your work top Roll until about 5mm thick - I used rolling pin measures to get a super even layer of icing Using a cake smoother, buff the icing until you have a nice, shiny, smooth circle big enough to cover your cake

9. Position cake onto cake stand or plate Lightly brush cake with cooled, boiled water Carefully lift up icing and place on cake Very lightly run your hands over icing so it adheres to the marzipan Using a sharp knife, cut off excess icing from bottom of cake

10. To get your bird cage even, start by placing a length of bakers twine over the top of your cake and pin in place, so that you have divided the cake in half Continue pinning bakers twine to your cake until you have segmented the cake into 12 pieces Lightly push the string into the cake so you are left with small indentations and remove string entirely Lightly sieve icing sugar on to your work top and knead white icing until soft and pliable. Then, using a rolling pin, roll into a long shape about 5mm thick, i.e. at least the width of the lace imprint and long enough to go round the cake

11. Push lace imprint into rolled out icing strip, continue until strip has imprint from end to end. Using a sharp knife, trim sides of strip, lightly brush cooled boiled water onto back of strip and adhere to bottom of cake. Trim off excess at ends Make up royal icing as package instructions Spoon into piping bag fitted with circular nozzle

12. Starting at the top of the cake, carefully pipe a strip of royal icing down one of the indentations in the cake Continue until you have all of the cage spindles piped Roll out fondant icing as before and cut a small circle out using a round cookie cutter, lightly brush the back of your fondant circle with water and place at top of the cake in the centre Then roll a small ball out of white fondant icing and attach to the top of the cake using a wooden tooth pick

13. Lightly sieve icing sugar on to your work top and knead white icing until soft and pliable. Then, using a rolling pin, roll into a long shape about 5mm thick, that is at least the width of the lace imprint and long enough to go round the cake Push lace imprint into rolled out icing strip, continue until strip has imprint from end to end Using a sharp knife, trim sides of strip, lightly brush cooled boiled water onto back of strip and adhere to the top straight part of the cake. Trim off excess at ends

14. Brush edible white glitter on to spindles of cage Continue brushing white edible glitter on to cage Brush aqua cake shimmer onto blue icing Work out the position of your petal paste bird and push bird foot into cake

15. Pipe a small dab of white royal icing onto the front of your fondant bird, line bird up with its foot and push into the side of the cake Pipe a small dab of royal icing onto the back of the fondant roses and place them at the top and bottom of the cake Pipe a small dab of royal icing onto the back of the holly leaves and place them at the top and bottom of the cake

16. Pipe a small dab of white royal icing onto the edible pink beads and place next to the holly leaves on the cake Using edible glitters, dust roses with pink glitter and leaves with green glitter Pipe a small dab of white royal icing onto the back of the snowflakes and place on cake Attach iced ring to ball on top of cake and lightly dust entire cake with sieved icing sugar