Parcel Cakes With Fondant Wrapping

These cakes have to be baked a day before they are cut and iced or they will crumble. Their square or rectangular shape makes them perfect for decorating as Christmas parcels.

The cake mixture makes sixteen parcels.

Ingredients

• 125g unsalted butter at room temperature
• 125g caster sugar
• 2 medium eggs, beaten
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 125g plain flour
• 75 ml milk
• 25g ground almonds
• Zest of 1 lemon and a tablespoon of juice

Icing/Filling

• 50g butter at room temperature
• Zest of 1 lemon and a tablespoon of juice
• 2 tablespoons lemon curd
• 1 tablespoon apricot jam
• 150g marzipan

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C or gas mark 4. Grease a 20cm square cake tin and line the base with buttered baking paper.

Cream together the butter and sugar and gradually add the eggs, using a teaspoon of the flour if the mixture shows any signs of curdling.

Sift the baking powder into the flour and fold half these dry ingredients into the creamed mixture, followed by half the milk, then the remaining flour, followed once again by the milk.

Using a large metal spoon, fold in the almonds and the lemon zest and juice until smooth.

Pour into the prepared tin and level. Bake on a middle shelf for around 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool completely in the tin.

The next day, peel the baking paper away, split the cake into two layers horizontally and spread the bottom layer with lemon curd before sandwiching back together. Gently warm the apricot jam in a microwave and pass through a sieve to remove any lumps. Brush it over the top and sides of the cake.

Roll the marzipan out to a 30cm square and then cut four 5cm deep rectangles, one from each side, to leave a 20cm square in the middle.

Lay the marzipan square on top of the cake and smooth it out. Lay the rectangles along the sides of the cake and smooth and pinch together, then cut into cubes or rectangles.

Rollable Fondant Icing

You can buy icing ready made in bright colours or make your own.

Ingredients

• 1 sachet gelatine
• 60 ml cold water
• 125 ml glucose syrup
• 1 tablespoon glycerine
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 kilogram icing sugar.

Method

Combine gelatine with the water cold water and leave to stand until thickened, then put this mixture in the top of double boiler and heat until dissolved before adding the glucose and glycerine and mixing. Stir in the butter and just before it melts totally, remove the pan from the heat and stir.

Leave this mixture to cool until lukewarm.

Put half the sifted icing sugar in a large bowl and make a well in the centre into which you pour the gelatine mixture.

using a wooden spoon, stir the gelatine mixture, incorporating more sugar each time you stir, to create a smooth mixture. Then add more sugar, a little at a time, so that the mixture becomes firm and not sticky.

At this point it may become easier to use your hands to knead the fondant until it becomes a smooth, pliable dough that doesn’t stick to your hands.

If it seems too soft, add more sugar. If it seems too hard, add water (a drop at a time) or food colouring to achieve the right colour for your parcels.

Use cornflour to stop the fondant sticking to your rolling pin and work surface as you roll it out, then cut 4 cm squares from the fondant and place around the sides and top of each ‘parcel’. Pinch the edges together and smooth with your fingertips. Decorate with real ribbons and edible glitter.

These cakes will look great wrapped in pretty cellophane and given as gifts. Why not try doing the same with some homemade shortbread?