Well the cake's been in the oven now for a good 3 hours, and the skewer test is coming out nice and clean, so out it comes...

The top of the cake has gone a nice dark brown colour. About 2 hours into the baking time, I stuck another circle of baking parchment on top of the cake to stop the top going too dark, and it looks good. Having left the cake to cool down in the tin, I then turned it out onto a wire cooling rack so the cake could properly cool down, before the next step.

As I've got to wait for my Lakeland order to arrive this week, I'm not going to marzipan it just yet. So I'll wrap it up and keep it somewhere cool until I'm ready to start with the decorating.The key with storing the cake until you are ready to do anything with it, is to make sure it is properly wrapped up. The way I was told to keep the cake by my Granny, was to wrap it up in baking parchment and then a couple of layers of kitchen foil. Then place the cake in a cool and dry place. 

If you are only storing the cake for a short time, you might not want to 'feed' your cake. But if you are storing for any longer, you will want to keep your cake moist as it matures. So every couple of weeks prick the top of your cake and drop 1 or 2 tablespoons of your choosen alcohol, in this case Stone's Ginger Wine, over the cake; but be careful not to add too much else your cake will go soggy and we don't want that...

So then, give me a couple of days and I'll be back with how I got on with the marzipan...