I need help for marzipan!!

[Thermomixer]

Complimenti farfallina - lots of work there ! 

Thanks for the tips andie,  the B&B pud with marzipan takes my fancy. 

[farfallina]

Cookie, I have a pandispagna recipe from my Bimby book which I always use. I modified it a little. I made cacao pandispagna
I prepared a cacao cream by modifiying some other recipe
I cut in half, wet with some milk and filled with cacao cream and banana slices
It was so delicious! There wasn't any oil or butter in it so it was kind of light if we don't take sugar into account!

Grazie Thermomixer:) I really worked but it worths

[Cornish Cream]

farfallina I didn't realize that the ladybirds were bread not potatoes.I have new reading glasses as well!!!But what a great idea to make bread look so delicious.My usual treatment of bread is to just spread it with butter.

[andiesenji]

I used marzipan to cover a birthday cake for a partly last Saturday.  I was so busy on Friday that I forgot to take photos as I also made stuffed jalapeņo peppers and some other things (Mexican party). 

I made it the "easy" way in that I rolled out the marzipan, cut the round to top the cake, using a 10-inch patty board (usually goes under the cake) as a pattern and put it on top of the cake - cemented down with a couple of dollops of royal icing.

I then rolled the remainder into a long strip, measured with a piece of baking parchment and cut to fit. 
I then applied the long strip around the sides of the cake (3-layer as it had to feed a lot of people) pinched the edge of the top round to the side piece and sealed the seam with pinching and smoothing. 
I then applied cutouts, cut from the scraps left over from the big portions, of stars, shells and butterflies around the pinched edge at the top and around the bottom of the cake to finish it. 
The cake then got a Happy Birthday Cathy penned on the top with a clear gel icing pen and a  Disney Snow White cake top figurine and a "7" candle holder.

This method is much easier than rolling a large piece of marzipan and draping it over the cake and then smoothing the folds on the sides. 
The next time I do one like this I will take photos.

I use the same technique for rolled fondant.

[Thermomixer]

Good thinking Andie.  My auntie showed my mother that method for icing Christmas cakes many years ago, but I had completely forgotten (as I don't ice cakes !)

My aunt used to do it professionally and it was much easier, just needed to seal the joins properly (or put a line of decoration over it)

I still have auntie's cake decorating books & gear from years ago - nearly 40 years ago 

[andiesenji]

I use the cut-to-fit method for many applications.

Putting together one of the stacked cakes, similar to a Black Forrest cake, is very time consuming when you have to spread the filling on each layer.
I use marzipan rounds or rectangles, depending on the shape of the cake, piping fruit jam, usually raspberry or cherry, before and after the slab of marzipan, which helps the layers to stick together.
I have all the marzipan shapes pre-cut, even before I begin slicing the cake into the thinner layers and it goes together in a third of the time it takes with the other method.
I love the combination of chocolate cake, marzipan and raspberry jam, with the whole cake topped with almond-flavored whipped cream just prior to serving.  It looks spectacular and everyone seems to love it. 

[Thermomixer]

Oh boy - that sounds like one rich cake.    I bet they love it!  Wonder what their doctors would think    I have to go for my annual bloods next week!

[Bonsai]

I tried the UK thermomix website recipe for marzipan and it came out extremely sticky (I also notice the recipe calls for 240g of sugar, which is then 'halved' into two lots of 100g!!). I've put the resultant mix in the fridge hoping it will harden a little without having to add a lot more sugar as it might be terribly sweet by then - the texture at the moment is like peanut butter so I think it will take quite a lot more sugar to make it rollable. Maybe my egg yolks were too big!
I have to get this right as the flavour is very good and I have to decorate a 3 tier wedding cake with marzipan and fondant (never done this before )
Is it OK to keep adding sugar a little at a time until the mixture behaves?

[passir]

Pour the marzipan out onto a surface "floured" with icing sugar instead of flour, and knead the icing sugar into it until your mix is no longer sticky, but smooth and malleable. Make sure you have glycerine on your hands, or shortening. Hope it works out for you.

[KerrynN]

Marzipan is really very easy to prepare and use in any number of projects.  It is a very forgiving compound and keeps beautifully. 

My DS9 is making some pizza cookies, where the decoration for the cookies is made from various things including marzipan which is supposed to be grated cheese. The recipe calls for "grated marzipan". He and DH have made the marzipan from the festival book but now I am not quite sure what they should do with it. Should they bake it and then grate it?

Thanks,
Kerryn

[andiesenji]

I haven't ever tried grating marzipan.  I have dried it and broken it into "crumbs" in a food processor.
When I made something like you describe (it was a sweet "tamale pie" topped with "shredded cheese")

I put the marzipan through a food mill with the die with 1/8 inch holes so it came out in "strings" then allowed them to dry a bit before applying to the top of the mock pie. 

I've also put marzipan through a potato ricer to get a similar effect but as I have arthritis in my hands, it is much easier with the food mill/meat grinder.
I'm pretty sure a potato ricer will work okay with the fresh marzipan. 

I just remembered, I also used that same technique to make "wool" for a lamb cake.  I usually use long-shred coconut but the person for whom I did the cake, did not want coconut and did not want plain white icing.  My ricer has two containers, with different sized holes. 

[Tasty]

I love marzipan!! Another one for trying out one day