How to marzipan a double-height fruit cake

The festive season is almost here again, so it’s time to bake, marzipan and cover our fruit cakes. Like all fashions, fashions in cake change. The current trend is bake and stack two smaller cakes to give a taller double-height finish. In this blog, I cover the basics of how to marzipan these double-height staked fruit cakes. hoping you’ll find it useful.

Getting started

Below is a list of everything you will need to get started:

I use the waxed paper to cover the square cake boards. These are then use to help flip the cake whilst covering.

How to marzipan – the glue

The first thing to know is that apricot jam or glaze is generally used to stick marzipan to fruit cakes. I however, don’t think I’ve ever used it! The reason, I make my own jams and jellies, using produce from my garden. These unfortunately don’t include apricots – oh to live in a warm climate where it’s possible. I tend, therefore, to use whatever jam or fruit jelly I have to hand, one I think will compliment the flavour of the fruit cake.

Whatever you choose to use just remember to heat it up first and apply it whilst still warm.

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Preparing the fruit cake

The video below shows you everything you need to know, but to whet your appetite here are a few slides from the video to demonstrate what it covers.

The first task is to cover the base of the cake with marzipan then fill any gaps to create a sturdy level cake.

Stacking the fruit cakes

It’s often easy to say ‘oh that’ll do’ when stacking cakes! I do suggest however that you take the time and trouble to check that the sides of your cake are more or less vertical. They can be adjusted later but it’s easier to do it at this stage.

Using a spirit level to check your stacked cake is level is important, unless of course your decoration will easily hide any imperfections. Note I have a spirit level that I only use for cakes!

Adding the marzipan

To achieve sharp edges, I suggest covering your fruit cake with marzipan in two stages. The first stage is to cover the top. The marzipanning techniques for doing this are covered in the video at the bottom of this post.

The second stage if to cover the sides, to do this roll out your marzipan into a long sausage shape then roll into an oblong. Roll up the marzipan and then unroll around the sides of the cake.

Watch me show you how to marzipan

Below is the video I have just filmed. It’s this years’ Christmas cake and it smells divine. I do so love a rich fruit cake…

In the video, I walk you through each of the necessary steps. I hope you find it instructional and useful.

More how-to tutorials

If you like learning, you might be interested to know that I have a free tutorials section here on the Lindy’s Cakes blog. Why not visit, you never know what you’ll discover.

Sweet wishes

Lindy Smith

‘Bringing world-class sugarcraft to your kitchen’