Animal cake

Method

1. Roll the gingerbread dough out and place on lined baking sheet. Cut out animal shapes, and peel away excess gingerbread and bake following these gingerbread instructions
2. Repeat the rolling out of gingerbread, and use a small knife to cut out palm trees, cutting out some large and some small ones, and bake.
3. Colour some of the royal icing orange, yellow and green keeping each bowl covered with a damp cloth while not using. Fill the piping bags, and cut off the ends of the bags to give small holes. Pipe features on to the animals, and detail on to the trees. Leave for the icing to set.
4. Cover the cake with the white sugarpaste as shown in our video or gallery, trimming away the sugarpaste from the top of the cake drum. Colour most of the remaining sugarpaste green, and the rest a mottled brown. Roll out the green icing and cut zigzag strips. Brush water on the back of the strips and stick around base of cake and partly on cake drum.
5. Repeat the making of the zigzag strips and place a second layer around the base, covering the top of the cake drum. Press the point of the knife into the icing all the way around the edge as decoration. Make boulders from the brown sugarpaste, and leaves from the remaining green ready-to-roll icing. Attach some of the gingerbread animals and leaves around the sides of the cake. Decorate the top of the cake with boulders, using them to support the gingerbread animals, and also add a few more leaves.