How to decorate a Christmas cake: Shooting star cake

Points to remember

• Cut out about 20 small stars and one large one. Paint half the small stars and the large one with edible gold paint and leave to dry.
• Roll out the red icing and cut out a rectangle about 40cm long and 10cm wide tapering into about 5cm wide at the bottom end. Cut a 'v' shape in the wide end so it looks like the end of a shooting star.
• Roll out the rest of the red icing into a circle and cut out a scroll shape, ensuring that one end is the same size as the smaller end of the rectangular cut earlier.
• Fix the first length of icing around the cake using a light brushing of water to help it stick.
• Carefully lift the scroll shaped piece onto the cake and join the end of the rectangle and the scroll together. Fix with water.
• Brush the red icing with a slightly damp brush to get rid of the icing sugar.
• Fix a ball of leftover icing onto the top of the cake.
• Arrange the smaller stars onto the red icing using icing from your piping bag and decorate with dots of icing. Fix the big star to the ball on top of the cake to finish.

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