Fruit Cake with Fruit & Nut topping

macwood2, Nov 15, 7:32pm
Have in the oven at the moment Jo Seagar's Southern Comfort Christmas cake.Am making it for a birthday cake (tomorrow).I don't want to ice with traditional icing and would like to use glace fruit and nuts instead.She says you can use caramelised sugar to pour over the nuts but won't that end up like toffee!Wouldn't that make it difficult to cut!Does anyone else use alternatives to traditional icing which work well.TIA

indy95, Nov 15, 10:57pm
Macwood2, it would depend on the thickness of the caramelised sugar topping but I guess cutting with a sharp serrated knife would solve that problem. You could glaze the glace fruit and nuts with warmed and sieved jam instead. Most recipes give apricot jam as the one to use but I have used all kinds including crabapple jelly.

fifie, Nov 15, 11:39pm
Instead of icing i often put nuts, dried fruit etc on top then brush with a nice brandy glaze which makes them shine and they taste good. Yell out if you want instructions. Guess the caramelised sugar would be nice to but not cooked to long so it dosen't go to toffee.

indy95, Nov 16, 5:23am
Fifie,I would like the recipe for that glaze please when you have time.

kiwitrish, Nov 16, 8:06pm
As a cake decorator,here is my recipe that I use on Christmas cakes that are not iced.
1 heaped Tablespoon Apricot jam. 2 Tablespoons brandy. Place Jam and brandy in a small saucepan and heat gently together, whisking until thoughly blended. Now using a brush paint some of the mixture over the top of the cake then arrange nuts of glace fruit on top and then brush generously over the whole top of topping. It leaves a wonderful shine and tastes great. Double or triple recipe if needed. If you have cooked your cake with nuts etc on it, brush glaze over it when it is cold.

fifie, Nov 16, 8:12pm
Indy here's the recipe its originally from Kiwi trish on here and is great,sometimes i do the mini cakes with it also and they look good all tied up in cellophane.
1 heaped Tablespoon Apricot jam. 2 Tablespoons brandy. Place Jam and brandy in a small saucepan and heat gently together, whisking until throughly blended. Now using a brush paint some of the mixture over the top of the cake, this makes the nuts stickthen arrange nuts or glace fruit on top and brush generously over the whole top of topping. It leaves a wonderful shine to them and tastes great. Just quadruple the glaze for more and it will coat 8 - 10 small cakes, or a larger cake.

indy95, Nov 17, 1:12am
Snap ! Thank you both.