What is Marzipan? Tips and More

What is marzipan?

Known as Marzipan in the US and Almond paste in the UK. Quite often the difference is the ratio of almonds to sugar used in the two. It can be added to a cake mixture before baking or be covered on a baked cake or fruitcake. There is so much you can do with it.

Marzipan is sweet and smooth. You can buy it or make it yourself. All you need is a large bowl and a food processor. It’s made into a dough with finely ground almonds (or almond flour), sweeteners such as powdered sugar (aka confectioner’s sugar), honey, maple syrup, or light corn syrup, and flavorings such as almond oil, extract, rose extract (rose water), or vanilla extract.

Different types of marzipan

• The traditional is almond-based was made with almond meal.
• Cashew-based was for those that did not like almond flavor.
• Hazelnut-based was the most expensive cause hazelnuts were very expensive.
• Of course, there’s chocolate.
• And then she’d flavor them differently too. Pineapple candy would have pineapple flavor, grape would have grape extract, etc.

I could go on and on about mom and her excellent kitchen joys. Fruits sold like this is what I know as Christmas candy.

Variations

• Gluten-free – Both almond flour and powdered sugar are supossed to be gluten-free.
• Sugar-free – you can use powdered erythritol instead of powdered sugar to make a sugar free marzipan.
• Chocolate marzipan – add cocoa powder to the powdered sugar to the classic.
• Vegan marzipan – use all vegan ingredients to make this vegan marzipan recipe. Not all white sugar is vegan, so you can also use vegan honey or maple syrup for a sweetener.

Is marzipan different from fondant?

• While they are similar in textures, marzipan is much denser than fondant.
• It doesn’t stretch like fondant. So, it can be crumbly and breaks up easily.
• Taste better than fondant but is sticky and not very smooth.
• It gets its color from the nuts so it is not white but pale ivory.
• You can color marzipan but the shades are not as bright as with fondant.
• Since it’s made with nuts – over-kneading when trying to color it, can cause the release of nut oils making it more difficult to work.
• Marzipan needs to be handled gently while fondant can endure some heavy kneading.
• Never use cornflour to roll or work with your marzipan. Cornflour can cause marzipan to develop molds. Always use powdered sugar only.

How to cover a cake with marzipan and fondant?

Here you can see I have covered a fruitcake with marzipan, then fondant. I made this marzipan cake for a customer’s mom’s 85th Birthday celebration.

• I brushed the fruitcake with apricot jam.
• Then, I cut a disc of almond paste for the top of the cake.
• Next, I rolled a long strip off for the sides of the cake – cut off the excess at the top.
• Then, I brushed the cake with a light smear of apricot jam again.
• Rolled my orange fondant and draped it over the cake.
• Continued the rest of the design as I have with roses and swags etc.

Working with marzipan or almond paste

1. I said this above but I’m going to say it again – Marzipan hates cornstarch!! So any contact with cornstarch will cause it to develop mold. In fact, you have to be very careful when covering a fruit cake – any cornstarch on the rolling pin can prove fatal to your fruitcake.
2. Just like sugar paste or fondant, you must keep it well-wrapped with a plastic wrap at all times. It dries out easily. And because it’s made with nuts it’s dried version becomes quite brittle.
3. It should be stored in a cool dry place away from direct sunlight. You can also store it in the fridge.
4. If you ever have dried marzipan don’t throw it away. Save it in the freezer – the next time you make the streusel add it to the streusel.

Uses of marzipan

There are many different ways to use marzipan from simply covering a fruitcake to making fruits and truffles.

• Easter eggs – my favorite treat of all times – the classic or chocolate Easter eggs.
• Fruit Cakes – Traditionally fruitcakes are covered in almond paste and Royal Icing.
  As explained above – Brush a fruit cake with Apricot jam, roll some and cover the cake. Then cover the cake with sugar paste or royal Icing. I’ve shared the detailed process above.
• Top a Carrot cake. The nutty marzipan and carrots make a great combination.
• Marzipan Layered cake – Roll and cut out a disc the same size as your cake. Layer it between two cake layers. Decorate the cake with whipped cream & strawberries or cherries.
• Make tasty cake decorations such as flowers and fruits for cakes. Just color it, roll and cut out the shapes. Cup the center of the flowers and place them on a cake. You can make roses similar to how we make chocolate roses but using almond paste.
• Make simple figures and models for your cakes. Human figures that don’t need support, such as a sitting boy, or animal shapes. You would rather eat a delicious figure than a sugar-paste figure.
• You can use it as a filing in puff pastry and croissants. Place a dollop as the filling, bake at 200 C/400 F for 15 to 20 minutes, or golden brown.
• Make truffles – Marzipan and chocolate are a great combination. I have a few marzipan truffle recipes (linked below).
  Roll it balls, dip them in melted chocolate.
• Don’t’ Like Almond? – Substitute the almonds in the recipe with your favorite nuts such as cashews, macadamia, or pecans marzipan.
• Chocolate Marzipan -substitute some powder sugar with cocoa powder making chocolate marzipan.
• The German traditional cake Stollen uses marzipan baked inside the cake.