Signature Bake Fruit Cake for #gbbo

Oh yes, you came back today for the big reveal of my Great British Bake Off signature bake fruit cake didn’t you? Well, I finished it. I’m calling it my “non-traditional” fruit cake. You see, I have layered it in marzipan but HAVE NOT added the obligatory royal icing. Oh no, you see, I don’t like royal icing. In fact, I peel it off of any cakes I can eat. I believe in icing you can’t peel off. I’m weird like that after all.

So, I layered my booze-soaked, gluten-free, rather-heavy fruit cake with marzipan and a bit of ribbon, writing icing and a dusting of icing sugar et voila…my signature bake fruit cake a la Karin for #gbbo:

Yes, I know it’s only half of a fruit cake. Yes, I know that it’s not all pristine white. Yes, I know that butterflies don’t really go on a fruit cake. Yes, I know there’s a strange letter (U) in candy pieces in the middle of the cake. I told you it was non-traditional. Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood would laugh me out of the baking marquee I tell you!

But it’s fun and it was an adventure. While I may never make fruit cake again, I now know that I CAN make fruit cake and that it doesn’t taste half bad. Maybe I’ll come up with my own fruit cake creation with nuts and chocolate pieces instead of the dried fruit which I still despise. Watch this space! And of course, the fruit cake is gluten-free with the simple replacement of regular flour with Doves Farm Plain White Gluten Free flour.

Now, as for the letter on my cake (U), part of the Great Blogger Bake Off challenge was to use a “secret” letter on our cakes. 3 other bloggers have gone before me: Mummy Mummy Mum, Life at the Zoo and A Mother’s Ramblings have also baked creations with their secret letters…check them out! After the next 6 bloggers post, there will be an anagram to piece together with our secret letters so stay tuned to the #gbbo Twitter hashtag for future announcements.

In the meantime, enjoy the Great British Bake Off on BBC2 (how about those meringue creations last night?!), download the GBBO app on iTunes and see if you can come up with your own signature bake! I don’t think mine is fruit cake! Ella was proud of it though!