Marzipan fruits-almond paste recipe

Modeling marzipan for the holidays is an old tradition in many European countries, during many religious celebrations.
Marzipan, also known as almond paste, can be molded into any shape, limited only by your own artistic skills.

Many marzipan sweets are shaped and colored as to resemble real fruits, like oranges, pears, apples and prickly pears.
Marzipan fruits can be used for decorating cakes and dinner tables.

Marzipan sweets are very healthy holiday treats packed with a lot of nutrients and a small amount of carbohydrate.
These ones from the pictures are ready made, I just bought them for Easter.

Hand making marzipan is not difficult to do and is a fun family activity to make with kids, though time consuming.
If you want to try homemade marzipan, here is a marzipan recipe from my old cookbook:

Marzipan-almond paste recipe

Ingredients:

• 200g (8oz) ground almonds - from your local grocery
• 200g (8oz) caster sugar (very fine sugar)
• 200g (8oz) confectioners sugar
• 2 eggs
• almond essence

Method:

• Step 1. Pass the sugars through a sieve, into a bowl to avoid any lumps. Add the ground almonds and stir together.
• Step 2. Break the eggs into a bowl, add a few drops of almond essence and beat.
• Step 3. Add them to the mixture with the ground almonds and sugar. Mix well until it forms a paste.
• Step 4. Tip out onto a board sprinkled with icing sugar and knead it until is is smooth.

Now your homemade marzipan is ready. It can be used immediately or refrigerate it for later use.
You can use it to cover a cake or color the marzipan paste and use it to shape little marzipan fruits, flowers or sweets of any shape.

To color the marzipan, divide the almond paste into as many pieces as colors needed.
Add a drop of food coloring to each piece and knead until evenly colored. If you want a more intense color, add another drop of coloring but be careful, you can't take it out once you drop to much color.

Almonds are said to lower cholesterol levels, which is very welcome especially during the holiday season when we can't (don't want to) avoid all our traditional, delicious but fattening and unhealthy foods.
Check out this homemade cake with marzipan decoration and grated fruits.