This will make more than enough for an 18 cm cake.
Some people like to layer the cake board with icing too.
With the left over icing, you could use some of them to make holly leaves and balls.
Instructions
Place the sugar into a bowl. Make a well in the centre.
Tip the egg white and glucose into the well and stir in using a wooden spoon.
Finish binding the icing together using your hands. Knead until all the sugar is incorporated and the icing feels silky and smooth.
Double wrap in 4 small plastic food bags to prevent it from drying out. It can be used straightaway and does not require refridgeration. Use within a week.
If you are using a fruit cake, it should first be covered with a layer of marzipan, then the surface needs to be brushed with clear alcohol or cooled, boiled water. This will make it tacky so that the sugarpaste will adhere to it.
Before covering a sponge cake with sugarpaste, it should be completely covered with either a coating of buttercream or jam. This will hold the sugar paste in place.
Using Sugarpaste:
Sugarpaste will harden as it is exposed to air so if you open a packet and just use a bit, re-wrap what's left over in a small polythene food bag to prevent it from drying out. Keep unused bags of sugarpaste in a plastic container. It does not need to be kept in the fridge.
When you are rolling it out, always roll it on icing sugar, never flour or cornflour. Keep a bowl of icing sugar handy to stop your fingers getting sticky. Don't worry about getting your creation "dusty" with the sugar. Simply brush marks away with a soft, damp paintbrush at the end.
When you are making models, you can use wather to stick the bits together. Never soak the sugarpaste, just dab with a sof paintbrush to make the surface tacky. Try to avoid getting drips of water on the sugarpaste. They will dissolve the surface, leaving an unsightly watermark behind.
Dust you worksurface with icing sugar to stop the sugarpaste from sticking. Knead the sugarpaste until it feels soft and pliable.
Roll it out to a thickness of about 5mm. Don't roll it too thinly or it will show up any irregularities in the cakes surface.
Lift the sugarpaste and place it over the top of the cake. You can either do this by sliding your hands - palms flat and facing upward, underneath the sugarpaste - or with a rolling pin.
Starting with the top, to try to avoid air getting trapped underneath, smooth the icing into position. A cake smoother is useful here to iron out lumps and bumps. if you do get an air bubble, prick it with a dressmakers pin.
Cut away the excess icing from around the base.
To decorate the Sugarpaste Icing, you could use Royal Icing for piping creations...
Originally Submitted
10/12/2008
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