Troubleshooting

Burnt Fruit Cake:
Oven is too hot or the cake itself is cooked too near the top of oven.
Try to bake cakes in the centre of oven. If the cake appears to be browning too fast, or you prefer lighter colored appearance, place a circle of greaseproof paper with a small hole cut out of the centre over the top of the cake and continue baking.

Sponge cake not rising:
Oven too hot
Cake placed near the top
Too much eggs in the mixture (if use large eggs, may take out a couple of spoonfuls before adding the rest to cake mixture)

Sugarpaste/modelling paste/marzipan too hard:
If a solid crust has formed, need to cut this off and discard.
Can microwave any of the above for few seconds to soften them slightly if you find them too hard to knead, but be very careful in doing this to sugarpaste as it can cause the icing to fracture slighttly when you lay it over the cake. So always keep tightly wrapped in small plastic bags to prevent hardening.

Cracked or fractured in sugarpaste:
Occured if too much kneading or microwaving beforehand.
Unless you find them particularly offensive, the cracks are usually best left alone or covered with a decoration, but here are alternative solutions to try if you wish. On recently applied sugarpaste, take a small lump of the same colour sugarpaste and polish it on a shiny surface. Then gently rub the area using small circular motions and tiny cracks will disappear. Alternatively, wait until sugarpaste has dried, then spread a little royal icing in the same colour as the sugarpaste over the cracks. Carefully scrape away the excess using a kniife and you should find the fractures have filled.

Blocked Icing Nozzles:
To stop nozzles getting blocked with old icing, use a small paintbrush to give them a good clean washing up. Also, try to avoid poking thing such as cocktail stick into the ends as this can force them to out of shape. Make sure you sift the icing sugar before making up royal icing to get rid of lumps, and don't miss any crusty bits of dried royal icing into fresh before piping as this can cause blockages too.