It’s so much easier than you think to make your own almond paste. And it tastes much more fresh and delicious.

Glazing the Cake

Before you lay the marzipan on the cake brush with 2 tablespoons of warmed apricot jam or sieved/shredless marmalade.

Working on an average 23cm (9inch) cake, make double if you would like to cover the sides of the cake as well as the top. You’ll probably have some leftovers but that’s no hardship: try topping mince pies with little almond paste cut outs instead of a lid.

Tip the icing sugar into the food processor bowl. Whiz briefly.

Add the ground almonds and whiz again to combine.

Add the egg yolk, almond extract and lemon juice. Whiz for a few seconds then stop and scrape the mixture from around the sides into the centre and whiz again. Repeat a few times.

Stop immediately the mixture congregates together on the side of the bowl (if you over-process it will become oily)

Transfer to a board lightly dusted with icing sugar. Knead gently into a ball then roll into a circle slightly larger than the cake.

Lift onto the glazed cake. Dust top with icing sugar and smooth and mould round the cake. A child's rolling pin is handy for this.  Trim away any excess.

Wrap in clean greaseproof paper and store in a cool dry place.

Icing the Cake

Sieve 400g of icing sugar into a bowl. Make a well in the middle  and gradually pour in 3-4 tablespoons of lemon juice (sieved if using fresh) stirring with a wooden spoon to incorporate. Once mixed, continue stirring until smooth and glossy. it should be fairly stiff but still pourable.

Pour it slowly onto the centre of the cake, smoothing it across and down the sides with a large flexible palette knife or flexible 30cm (12 inch) plastic ruler.

You may like to create the traditional snow scene by roughing up the surface with the back of a dessert spoon, maybe making a little path, and decorating with little fir trees, snowmen etc.