How to Make and Use
Almond Paste (Marzipan)

When making your own paste you can add a little cherry liqueur, brandy, sherry or vanilla essence to taste this will improve the overall flavor.

Never roll marzipan out onto cornstarch as it can cause the paste to ferment which can spoil your beautiful work of art. Always roll out onto pure icing sugar (the other type of icing sugar has cornflour in it).

Almond paste can be made cooked and uncooked. Below is an uncooked version.

After you have let your cake mature for several weeks, you can apply the almond paste, leave it to dry for at least 48 hours before you apply the fondant covering.

Uncooked Almond Paste

This recipe is sufficient to cover a 20cm (8 inch) square cake or a 23 cm (9 inch) round fruit cake.

Ingredients

500g (1 lb) pure icing sugar

185g (6 oz) ground almonds or marzipan meal

2 egg yolks

3 tablespoons cherry liqueur or brandy or sherry or vanilla essence

2 teaspoons glycerin

Method

1. Sift the pure icing sugar into a large bowl, add the ground almonds, mixing well with your finger tips.



2. Beat the egg yolks, add the sherry, glycerin and then add to the icing sugar and ground almonds mixture.



3. Knead to a firm dough, adding a little more icing sugar if the mix is too soft and a little more sherry if it is too firm.



4. Knead the mixture on a board with sifted pure icing sugar. Knead until the mixture has lost its stickiness and is smooth.

Consistency

Marzipan should not be dry and crumbly or wet and sticking to the board.

Storage

Always store the marzipan in an airtight container. Don’t expose it to the air for very long because it will dry out. You don’t have to store it in the refrigerator unless you intend to keep it for several months.

How to Color Marzipan

This is an oil base paste so it will need more food coloring to give deeper shades of colors. Use a toothpick dipped in food coloring to add to the paste.

Knead the paste with your fingertips until the color is evenly distributed throughout and you have achieved the color that you want.

How to Cover a Cake with Almond Paste

You need to prepare you fruit cake before you apply the Marzipan covering and this can be done as follows:

Carefully remove the cake from the tin, peel off the lining paper. Remove the paper gently so that you don't break of the corners from the cake.

Turn the cake upside down onto several sheets of greaseproof paper.

The cake will be iced in this upside down position, as the base of the cake provides a good flat surface with well shaped corners.

Check the cake carefully, you may have to trim the top (which is now the base) of the cake to make it sit level and flat.

Patch any holes in the cake with small pieces of marzipan. Fill any cavity around the base of the cake with sausage shaped pieces of almond paste smooth the paste with a knife or small spatula.

 Before covering the cake with almond paste spread a thin layer of apricot jam or beaten egg white over the entire cake, this will ensure that the marzipan will stick to the surface of the cake. Don’t use too much jam or egg white on the cake; this can leak though the base of the cake after the marzipan has been applied.

Use enough of the almond paste to make a roll of about 5cm to 6cm (2 inch to 2⅜ inch) diameter and about 45cm (18 inch) long. Press this flat with the palm of your hand, then roll it out width ways and length ways with a rolling pin to make a rectangle that matches the height and circumference of the cake. Cut it straight.

Sift a little pure icing sugar over the paste and roll it up like you would a Swiss roll. Place the end of the roll against the side of the cake, pressing firmly with you hand unroll the paste around the side of the cake. The side that was sprinkled with icing sugar is on the outside.

Press the paste carefully to the side of the cake, don’t press with your fingers because this will leave marks.

Use a piece of muslin cloth made into a pad and gently rub over the marzipan to smooth paste.

Roll out enough paste to cover the top of the cake.

Lift the paste carefully onto the cake and roll lightly with a rolling pin.

Trim of the excess paste with a pair of scissors so that the top and the sides meet neatly.

Gently rub the join with your hand until it is well sealed and barely visible.

Finish of by rubbing with the muslin cloth.

 Note If your cake is 20cm (8 inches) or smaller, you can apply it in one unbroken sheet, the same way that you would do for fondant icing.