Method

1. Knead 700g of the icing until smooth. Dust work surface with icing sugar, then roll icing into a circle 5mm thick and 40cm wide. Brush cake with cool, boiled water. Roll icing over the rolling pin, then place onto the marzipan, smoothing any folds. Cut away any excess, then use a glass to smooth sides of the cake.

2. Knead the trimmings with the remaining 300g icing and roll out to 5mm thick. Using an 8cm star cutter, cut one large star. Roll the rest of the icing a little thinner, then cut out 20 stars with a small cutter. Lift stars onto greaseproof paper and leave overnight. Once dry, mix some of the gold lustre with a drop of water then paint the large star and half the small stars gold. Leave to dry for 30 mins.

3. Squash trimmings together and colour with the red colouring paste. For the star’s tail, shape half the icing into a rectangle and roll out to a long strip about 3mm thick. Cut a length, 40cm long and 10cm wide at one end, tapering to about 5cm wide. Cut a ‘V’ in the wide end (see picture, below left). Cover with cling film, then roll the rest of the icing into a 20cm circle. Cut a scroll shape, ensuring one end is the same width as the thinner end of the first piece.

4. Brush the sides of the cake with water, then wrap the tail around. Lift the scrollshaped piece onto the cake, dampening underneath so it sticks, and join the scroll and tail ends together. Brush away excess icing sugar with a damp brush and leave to dry. Roll a walnut-size ball of icing and put on top of the cake where the tail ends.

5. Beat the egg white with the icing sugar to make a smooth paste. Spoon into an icing bag fitted with a fine writing nozzle. Use this to stick the large star onto the ball of icing and the small stars to the tail, and to pipe graduated dots to decorate. Leave to dry.