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Decorating a cake

Eric Lanlard from Great Food Live
Eric Lanlard shows how to dress a cake in stunning style with shards of cocoa-flavoured caramel, gold leaf and glitter

Decorating a cake

Method

1. In a heavy based saucepan, combine the sugar and 75ml of water and heat gently, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to a boil and cook until amber in colour. Remove from the heat.

2. Quickly stir in the crushed cocoa beans and pour the caramel onto a flat baking sheet or silicone mat. Leave to set into hard caramel.

3. In a small saucepan, heat the apricot jam until runny, then press it through a fine-meshed sieve so that it's completely smooth.

4. Slice the fruits and arrange them on the top of the cake. Use a pastry brush to brush the apricot glaze over the fruits.

5. Break the caramel sheet into shards and arrange them over the glazed fruit in an artistic fashion. To decorate with gold leaf, use the tip of a pointed knife to place small pieces of the gold leaf over the caramel shards. Highlight some of the fruits with the edible glitter and serve.