Ingredients

Step by step

1. For the icing, gently heat the milk in a saucepan over a low heat then add 70g of the white chocolate, stirring to melt. Transfer to a large bowl and sift in the icing sugar, stirring as you go until smooth. Set aside.
2. Trim the Madeira cakes and cut into six 5cm squares. Take one square and cut it into a rough 5cm x 3cm rectangle, discarding the rest of the square. Spread the coconut over a large plate. Dip the sponge cake squares and the smaller rectangle into the icing, allowing the excess to drip off. Coat the dipped cakes in the coconut, then transfer to a plate or chopping board lined with baking paper and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes to set. Reserve the remaining icing. Melt the remaining 10g of white chocolate and drizzle this all over the chocolate fingers. Chill alongside the cake in the fridge to set.
3. Make mini Christmas ‘gift parcels’ by taking small pieces of ready-to-roll icing and shaping into cubes. You can use a small sharp knife to make the cubes neater, if you wish. Using a different colour, roll out thin pieces of fondant and cut into thin strips to make ribbons and tiny triangles to make bows for the parcels, using water to help them stick. Set aside to dry and firm up.
4. To make carriages, use a small sharp knife, cut a square on one side of four of the cake squares. Use a teaspoon to scoop out the cake until you have a square-shaped hole halfway down (these holes will hold the sweets!). Trim the ends of the chocolate fingers and cut in half so you have 8 small sticks.
5. With the holes at the top, arrange the carriages on a decorative board and place the uncut square of cake at the front. Using the reserved white chocolate icing, stick the rectangle piece of cake on top of the front square to resemble an engine. Connect all the cake carriages together using the trimmed chocolate fingers. Use the reserved icing to stick chocolate coins on the sides of each carriage to resemble wheels. Stick a chocolate coin to the front engine. Carefully unwrap one coin, halve it and stick one half on the engine, then roll the gold foil from the unwrapped coin into two tubes and stick these into the top. Fill each carriage with chocolates and sweets, adding a few icing parcels to each one.