Fruit Cakes
Note- For the icing of Fruit Cakes. Follow the same techniques below, but cover your cake with an apricot glaze(apricot jam heated with a little water and sieved) instead of ganache. This will stick the almond icing to the cake. Do not refrigerate beforehand. Then use apricot glaze again to stick the white icing to the almond.

Step one
Level your cake and secure cake to board with royal icing. Spread gancahe or flavoured butter icing over cake and refrigerate for 15min.

Step two
Knead fondant slightly to soften before rolling. Spray bench with cooking spray (I use Sunfield canola spray with no added water but you may also use cornflour if you prefer). Roll fondant out to approximately 0.5-0.75 of a cm thick.
Note: turn fondant halfway through rolling to ensure you roll evenly.If you find you have any airbubbles in your fondant when rolling prick these with a pin and smooth out.

Step three
Lift the fondant onto your cake (you can either use your hands or a rolling pin to do this) gather the bottom inwards with one hand while using the other to smooth down the side and get out any folds or wrinkles.Once this is done push the excess icing into the cake at the bottom to make a crease as shown below. Cut around crease and pull away excess icing.

Step four
Smooth the icing of the cake using a smoother as shown below.To tidy the bottom icing of the cake push in the bottom edge with a scraper or palette knife as shown below.

Note: Keep your iced cake in a cool dark place before decorating not in the fridge as this makes the icing sweat.