My dear friend Sarah's 20th birthday was yesterday, and as part of her gift I decided to make her a birthday cake. I thought I'd be a little adventurous, and so began my foray into the world of royal icing!
Candied limes (or any other fruit):
Ingredients:
- Limes (or other fruit)
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup white sugar
- 2 tbsp caster sugar
Start out by slicing your fruit in thin discs or cubes.
For citrus fruits, blanch them - drop them in boiling water for 30-45 seconds, then plunge them into ice cold water.
In a pan, boil enough water to cover all of your fruit. Add in 1 cup of sugar (or more if you're using a lot of fruit) and all of your fruit, then let it boil for 10-15 minutes until the pith (white bits) are starting to look a bit more translucent and the center is almost totally translucent.
Boil boil boil! Don't worry if it starts to bubble up - just ignore it, or take it off the heat for a few seconds if it starts to bubble over. Try not to disturb them too much; you don't want the sugar to crystallise.
Lay the fruit out on a wire rack to cool. Be careful - hot sugar can cause nasty burns!
I don't have a picture of the next step, because my hands were absolutely covered in sugar, but essentially:
Get a small saucer, and add a few tablespoons of caster sugar. Pick up your fruit one at a time, coat them well in the sugar on both sides and lay it back down on the rack. You might need more than 2 tbsp, depending on how much sugar you feel like and the fruit you're using.
Don't worry too much - just go crazy.
Wrap the rack up with cling and let everything cool and set in the fridge.
Tune in soon for the next post - making the lemon drizzle cake!
♥
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