This cake is one of my favorite Christmas things to bake. Not a fruitcake, but a buttery almond pound cake with tons of brandy-soaked fruits, it is still can be made well in advance (about a week beforehand is good enough for me). Orange marmalade and Grand Marnier glaze keeps the cake moist and fragrant.
I have made it before, but this year there’re gumpaste Snowmen instead of Santas. The decorations are obviously quite easy (everyone can roll little balls in the palms), although extremely monotonous and time-consuming. I started tilting the snowmen’s heads to the sides to make them not-so-alike and keep myself from boredom. Anyway, decorated or not, the cake is delicious and perfect for the holidays.
And now, I’m announcing the lucky winner of the Top Chef giveaway. It’s… Irene (comment left on December 15th, 2009 at 11:57 am)! Congratulations! There is also a little surprise: I decided to give away the Top Chef Season 5 DVD as well. The second winner is… Grace (December 11th, 2009 at 3:38 am)! Irene, Grace, please, e-mail me your postal addresses and I’ll ship the goodies to you. Thank you everyone for the participation!
January 4, 2011 at 1:28 pm
Alex, thank you :)
January 4, 2011 at 2:30 am
I love the snowmen! Each one seems to have a personality of his own. I’d be tempted to name them all :-)
January 15, 2010 at 12:25 am
Love the abundance of snowmen! And this sounds like a great variation to offer next time around!
December 24, 2009 at 2:26 am
Love the cute little fellows Vera…adorable!!
December 23, 2009 at 10:52 pm
Thank you very much for your wonderful comments! Merry Christmas!
December 23, 2009 at 3:22 pm
Beautiful, Vera. Wow. You’re quite talented. Not that I didn’t think that before, but you seem to outdo yourself everytime I visit your blog. Kudos!! :o)
December 23, 2009 at 2:12 am
The snowman look so flawlessly perfect that it makes it hard to believe that they’re handmade and not storebought)))
December 21, 2009 at 1:21 pm
That cake looks beautiful!!
December 21, 2009 at 5:26 am
the snowmen are so adorable Vera! beautifully crafted cake.
December 20, 2009 at 7:27 pm
Oh I love the tilted heads of the snowmen!!
December 20, 2009 at 6:41 pm
I actually don’t mind Christmas cake, but this does sound even better. Such cute decorations. :)
December 19, 2009 at 8:42 pm
What adorable decorations! I am a big fan of almond and dried fruit, so this sounds perfect.
December 19, 2009 at 8:35 pm
Hi Vera, this cake is very pretty. In fact I like this better than the santas, maybe because they all look so cute and cheeky with tilted heads. Anyway wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas and happy hols@
December 19, 2009 at 2:30 pm
Cool! I love almond cake, I can see it in my future since I got a giant box of almond paste from the supplier recently!
You shouldn’t knock fruit cake until you’ve tried the delia smith cake, its very tasty!
And thanks for the ideas with the snowmen, I may have a try at copying yours for my cake, they look so jaunty with the top hats and canes! Merry Christmas!
December 19, 2009 at 6:55 am
Beautiful cake! I love the little snowmen, so festive;)
December 19, 2009 at 6:33 am
Wow, that looks amazing. My decorations never turn out so well… I have serious decorating envy.
December 19, 2009 at 5:14 am
It looks so yummy!
December 19, 2009 at 4:48 am
It’s so pretty!!
December 19, 2009 at 4:27 am
Gorgeous cake!
December 19, 2009 at 1:50 am
What a pretty cake!
Cheers,
Rosa
December 19, 2009 at 1:02 am
woooww.. the snowmen look cuutte!! :D