MARZIPAN DECORATIONS…made from scratch!
Ingredients:
Almonds – 100gms
Powdered sugar – 1/2 cup
Almond essence – 1 tsp
Water – 1/4 cup approximately
Golden Syrup – 1 tbsp
Method:
- Bring a pan of water to a boil. Drop the almonds in; boil for 1-2 minutes. Drain.
- Peel the skins off the almonds. They should easily slip off.
- Spread the skinned almonds onto a baking tray and allow to dry under a medium-hot grill (180 degrees C) for 8-10 minutes.
- Cool, and then grind in a coffee grinder into almond meal. Do the grinding in short spells, & stir each time to avoid it becoming pasty.
- Turn the meal into a bowl; stir in the sugar, followed with the almond extract.
- Add the syrup, mix in well. Now add cold water, 1 tbsp at a time, to get a play dough like consistency. Knead till smooth.
- Keep covered in cling wrap until you use it. Break off bit by bit, kneading colours into the dough to colour it, and shape as required.
- I rolled out the dough for the flowers & leaves, using mini cookie-cutters to cut out shapes. Flowers for the flowers & heart shapes for the leaves.
- The kids made the bugs etc just like using play dough…& had a great time. Do remember that this dough is quite sticky at times, and tends to dry a little if kept open for too long.
- Note : Try & use it only bit by bit. It’s really delicious too, so do remember to have a bite!!!
“The art of dining well is no slight art, the pleasure no slight pleasure.”
Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, French essayist
Deeba @ PAB
About me: I am a freelance food writer, recipe developer and photographer. Food is my passion - baking, cooking, developing recipes, making recipes healthier, using fresh seasonal produce and local products, keeping a check on my carbon footprint and being a responsible foodie! I enjoy food styling, food photography, recipe development and product reviews. I express this through my food photographs which I style and the recipes I blog. My strength lies in 'Doing Food From Scratch'; it must taste as good as it looks, and be healthy too. Baking in India, often my biggest challenge is the non-availability of baking ingredients, and this has now become a platform to get creative on. I enjoy cooking immensely as well.
21 Comments
aparna
You’ve done it again. I have never attempted really decorating a cake, but I have promised my daughter that I shall do it for her next birthday. About 6 months away so I have time!!!
Happy Birthday wishes to your daughter.
Nags
such lovely decos. Is almond essence freely available in india? also, how did you get that label cloud? please let me know!
Srivalli
Hey those are looking great!
Ben
I just made marzipan for the first time for my Daring Bakers challenge last month and it was a lot of fun. I didn’t care much for the taste but I got to make some pretty mushrooms with it.
Your decorations are fabulous, as usual. I want a piece of that cake when it comes out, please :-p
Cynthia
It must be so cool to have a mom like you that can make great cakes! 🙂
bindiya
Superb Deeba!I am speechless!!
Mer
This is great! I am so excited to try this. But I don’t have a coffee grinder. Will a food processor work okay? Or I have a hand crank thing, now that I think about it, that is for chopping up nuts. If I did it really fine – is that the idea?
And what is “Golden Syrup”? Is it a pure maple syrup? Or is it a syrup like you would use on your waffles?
They look just beautiful!
Latha
they’re so pretty, deeba! and such a neat trick to do with cookie cutters. you’ve a 12yr old! wow can’t believe it… birthday wishes in advance to your baby and we do look forward to the pictures..
Anu
HI,
I came across your site while searching for easy sponge cake recipe and i loved your site and your skill at baking. Its too good.
If possible can you let us know the type of cake you baked for your daughters bday..
wish you a happy new year
thanks
Anu, Pune.
Madhavi
wow!beautiful decorations.First time here in your blog and just loved all these cake beauties.thanks for sharing all these with us.
Passionate baker...& beyond
Hi there Aparna…you better start planning now! Kids put sooooooooo much pressure its unbelieveable. Hope you have fun doing the cake. My daughter is mighty thrilled to get a birthday message from you, and said to say thank you!!
Hi Nags,Yes you do. Bush makes a ‘Sweet Almond’ essence. Tell me if you can’t find it; will mail you a bottle. Just picked up 2 today…no problem at all! The label cloud was a pleasant surprise which came as part of the template I downloaded.
Srivalli
Hope Christmas was good Ben.
I am on DB from Jan I think….wish the marzipan had come then….hmmmmmmmmmph!! Just my kinda luck! This one tasted pretty darned good!
But not so cool being a MUM that has to bake the cakes!! HA HA!
Thanks Cynthia…the kids are my greatest admirers & do full justice to all I bake & cook. Its their enthusiam that eggs me on!!
Bindiya
Hi there Mer,
Glad the excitement caught you too! I was so excited while making them. I think a food processor should work fine. Just grind them in short bursts & scrape the sides down often. The idea is to get them fine. Golden syrup is like maple syrup. Most recipes for marzipan on the net use corn syrup, which I didn’t have. I think the idea is to have something sticky in there to bind it together.I got golden syrup from the UK. Does look a lot like maple syrup though.
Thanks Latha…the cookie cutter idea just crossed my mind trying to make same sized decorations the last time. The 12 yr old ain’t a baby no more; is taller than me. Have passed yr bday wishes & she’s THRILLED! :0)
Hi Anu,
Thanks for dropping by & leaving such nice comments. Am baking a chocolate sponge cake for my daughter’s birthday, sandwiched with chantilly cream (cream whipped with sugar & vanilla essence), topped with chocolate ganache & then those marzipan decorations. I have the design in my head; let’s see how much gets transferred to the blessed cake!
Madhavi, thanks for such inspiring words. U made my day!
Passionate baker...& beyond
Hi there Aparna…you better start planning now! Kids put sooooooooo much pressure its unbelieveable. Hope you have fun doing the cake. My daughter is mighty thrilled to get a birthday message from you, and said to say thank you!!
Hi Nags,Yes you do. Bush makes a ‘Sweet Almond’ essence. Tell me if you can’t find it; will mail you a bottle. Just picked up 2 today…no problem at all! The label cloud was a pleasant surprise which came as part of the template I downloaded.
Srivalli
Hope Christmas was good Ben.
I am on DB from Jan I think….wish the marzipan had come then….hmmmmmmmmmph!! Just my kinda luck! This one tasted pretty darned good!
But not so cool being a MUM that has to bake the cakes!! HA HA!
Thanks Cynthia…the kids are my greatest admirers & do full justice to all I bake & cook. Its their enthusiam that eggs me on!!
Bindiya
Hi there Mer,
Glad the excitement caught you too! I was so excited while making them. I think a food processor should work fine. Just grind them in short bursts & scrape the sides down often. The idea is to get them fine. Golden syrup is like maple syrup. Most recipes for marzipan on the net use corn syrup, which I didn’t have. I think the idea is to have something sticky in there to bind it together.I got golden syrup from the UK. Does look a lot like maple syrup though.
Thanks Latha…the cookie cutter idea just crossed my mind trying to make same sized decorations the last time. The 12 yr old ain’t a baby no more; is taller than me. Have passed yr bday wishes & she’s THRILLED! :0)
Hi Anu,
Thanks for dropping by & leaving such nice comments. Am baking a chocolate sponge cake for my daughter’s birthday, sandwiched with chantilly cream (cream whipped with sugar & vanilla essence), topped with chocolate ganache & then those marzipan decorations. I have the design in my head; let’s see how much gets transferred to the blessed cake!
Madhavi, thanks for such inspiring words. U made my day!
Mer
Thanks for the tips. You’ll see it on my blog if/when I try it. :0)
Tell your daughter Happy Birthday from me too, k?
meeso
You are really talented!!! These are amazing…AND the marzipan made from scratch!
Maya Shanbhag
Hey Deeba,
Firstly, happy new year to you. Am amazed at ur creativity with baking. Now I can learn from here. I will try to bake a nice cake with decorations for my son’s b’day in March. Very good work..
Jerri
these are lovely.
bev Dyck
Learning about using marzipan, I stumbled onto your site. It’s lovely, and you seem like an amazing person! Thanks for all the work you’ve done here – I’m going to spend some fun time exploring your work! Bev
Purnima
Hey Deeba, would need your advise as the daughter’s n son’s bday approaching..planning on marzipaan decoration this time..:D hope it goes thru..
1. whats the shelf life of marzipan..i mean how many days in advance can i prepare these cutouts?
2. can i use cocoa powder for a deep color, if yes, how? i intend to do a car shape for the boy’s cake…so for tyres..any idea??
Tks a ton in advance..knowing hw busy u r, I would greatly appreciate your experienced suggestions, as I value them more over googling! 🙂
(The bday wd b in early nov n jan ..lot of time to resolve! 😀 breather..isnt it?)
Greeting Card Printing
Oh my those are absolutely amazing! Such wonderful marzipan works of art. I’m sure all the cakes that you created are hits! Thansks!
Padmanandhini
Hey, can u let me know about the colour(what is the market name and brand name) u have used. Just want to know about it before i go and search for the same in the grocery shop.
Anonymous
Hello Deeba,
Can you tell me the sugar used in this marzipan recipe is Powdered sugar or Icing sugar?
Thanks in advance.