Easy marzipan recipe and a few icing tips
Comments(52)
I love marzipan. The homemade kind is the most delicious and it’s a cinch to make. My mum used to announce that she’d made it with such a sonorous trumpeting that, for years, I imagined it was a complex procedure. I made it in a matter of minutes and rang her just in case I’d got something wrong. She was a bit crouchy that her secret was finally revealed. Her marzipan recipe is below.
Some people prefer cooked marzipan. This is a much more complex process and is covered here on the Delia online website:
http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/almond-icing-marzipan,890,RC.html
The other fact that my mother hadn’t mentioned was how tricky it can be to ice the cake. The first time that I iced a Christmas cake I’d left it rather late in the day, mixed up some icing and poured it onto the cake. It looked wonderful. I pottered off to put up some decorations. When I returned a few minutes later, the cake was sitting on the plate, marooned in a sea of icing and covered with the thinnest layer of icing that I’d ever seen. You can get around this problem by using royal icing. Delia has a good recipe for this
http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/royal-icing,1040,RC.html
I prefer my icing to be soft and thick, not the teeth snapping stuff that can probably be obtained free from out of work dentists. When I found that I had a cake with a whisper of icing, I rang my mum again. She explained that the icing sugar mix has to be fairly stiff when applied. She just used icing sugar and water and so do I. If your mixture is a bit thin add more icing sugar before applying. If you find that it is too thin after applying it to the cake, keep on reapplying the icing with a knife, it will gradually dry out and thicken.
Best marzipan recipe (uncooked)
Ingredients:
- Apricot jam/apple jelly (for glaze)
- 400g ground almonds
- 240g caster sugar
- 240g icing sugar
- 2 medium egg yolks
- 2 medium eggs
- 1 desertspoon of lemon juice
- 6 drops vanilla essence
- 4 drops almond essence
- 1 dessertspoon of brandy/ Irish whiskey
Method:
- Heat your jam or jelly gently until just simmering and remove from heat. Using a pastry brush, apply to the cake’s surface (top and sides).
- In a large bowl, sift the caster and icing sugar (this is worth doing as both can be lumpy and it takes seconds to sift). Add the ground almonds and stir well.
- Beat the eggs, add them to the mixture and add the lemon juice, vanilla, almond essence and brandy.
- Mix well, with a light touch.
- Sprinkle a board liberally with icing sugar and knead mixture briefly until smooth.
- Measure the diameter and the height of the cake with a piece of string. Rollout with a rolling pin to the correct size and apply to the cake. Smooth out the marzipan and finish with a hot knife if very bobbly.
- If you prefer you can cover the top and then the sides as follows. Roll out the marzipan. Place cake topside up on the marzipan and cut to the correct diameter. Set this aside. Reform the marzipan and roll out a long thin strip the height of your cake. Apply the marzipan to the sides of the cake before you lift on the top. Smooth the joints and set your cake in a warm spot to dry the marzipan coating before icing.
If you marzipan and ice your cake immediately you may get bleed through from the almond oil in the icing. To avoid this, I try and marzipan a minimum of two days before icing. Then I leave the cake for a day in a warm spot overnight and put it in the larder until Christmas Eve, in a tin. It’s iced when the King’s College Carol Service is trilling on the TV.
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Just found your marzipan recipe. Mine is almost the same apart from using sherry instead of spirit, and all egg yolks (no whites).
I agree, you really can’t beat home made marzipan!
Hi Mildred,
My mum used to makes home made marzipan sweets every Christmas. They were delicious too.
Thanks for leaving a comment.
Hi Fiona,
This recipe tasted amazing! Thank you. My family were so impressed
The only tip I would give to any fellow readers who are going to try it is not to roll it out on a silicone mat like I did! Silicone and marzipan did not mix well…it stuck to everything!
Thanks
Crystal
Hi Crystal
Glad that you liked the marzipan!
It is very sticky and I use a wooden board scattered liberally with icing sugar.
I would like to ice my Ruby Wedding cake with royal icing as my family do not like roll-on icing. How do I get it smoothe?
As a practice run, using my Christmas cake, I used Royal Icing Sugar (ie contains dried egg white) and found it useful. I made up the first coat quite thick, spread it as flat as I could and left it for a week. Then made a runny version and poured it over. It was quite smoothe on the top, but lumpy on the sides.
I have heard that they used to smoothe royal icing using sandpaper in the old days. Is this safe? Does it work?
All comments welcome!
Hi Julia
I am sorry but I have never used royal icing so I can’t help.
I remember my mother using a knife and a bowl of hot water to smooth icing when I was a child.
Perhaps another reader knows the answer.
Hi,
I have used sandpaper(out of desperation) on royal icing in the past, but actually found that it made the icing tough on the surface. I did get a bit carried away though. I would use it again but only on small sections. As for safe; so long as you brush any loose powder away I can’t see a problem. I had no complaints.
Hi val
Thanks for sharing!
I am making a 9″ square Wedding Cake. What size does this recipe cover?
Hello Janet
Mine is a eight inch round tin so you may need to up the amounts a bit.
Hi, this might seem like a really stupid question but does marzipan have to contain almonds? My fiance hates the flavour of marzipan but we really want a traditional wedding cake.
Does you know of a good substitute for marzipan that we could flavour with something else?
Hi,
Can anyone tell me how long this marzipan will last? I’m making sweets (with edible sparkles, colours etc!) for Christmas presents and would like to make a head start if possible!
Thanks in advance if you or anyone else knows.
PS I’m doing lots of baking/cooking/crafty things at the moment, and your site keeps coming up on search engines with answers to my questions, so thanks for all your help!
Hi Vicky
Sorry to have missed your comment. The main ingredient of marzipan is almonds. I’m really sorry but I don’t have enough experience to answer your question.
Perhaps you could go for an entirely different cake altogether!?
Hi Amy,
This marzipan last for a week or two at best, kept in the fridge. As it contains raw egg.
It does freeze well but if you are making these sweets as presents you must tell your friends to sore the sweets in the fridge.
If you don’t like almonds they can be replaced with ground pistachios. Never tried it myself but it is supposed to be delicious.
Hi
I have just made marzipan for the first time, it turned out wonderful! I was wondering though, how soon do I need to ice the cake, can i leave it another week or should i do it sooner?
Hi Angie
You need to put the marzipan on the cake and wrap it let it dry for a few day otherwise it will bleed through into the icing. I usually put mine in a tin and then ice it just before Christmas.
Hi
I have made my Christmas cake, using your recipe, and hope to marzipan this weekend,
Can you please confirm…do i use 2 egg yolks…and then 2 eggs?
I have only recently discovered your site, but i am liking it alot!
Thanks
Hello Sonya
Yes it’s two egg yolks and two eggs.
Do hope that it turns out well for you!
Probably too late, but have just seen the query on substitute for almonds in marzipan. During the war and just after (my mother told me about it) semolina or ground rice was used. You would still have to choose your flavouring tho’
Great Christmas cake! and am preparing to marzipan and ice it – but a query about using raw eggs in the marzipan: how long will the cake then keep and still be safe to eat? Also how safe it to eat with regard to salmonella? Thanks for your reply.
Hi Chris
Thanks for the tip!
Hello Maggie
You have to assess the risk yourself. We have never had a problem using raw eggs in marzipan. But there’s always a first time. There are loads of ‘hot’ marzipan recipes around that use cooked eggs. If you are concerned, it may be better to plump for one of these. I am willing to take the risk as fresh marzipan tastes so much better.
Our cake lasts until the end of January (it’s usually finished by then) so I have no idea how much longer that it would keep for beyond a month or so. But if there is salmonella in the eggs you would know on Christmas Day.
We keep our cake in a tin in a cool larder.
re Vicky’s question and Chris’ suggestion – yes, ground rice will work well. You could up the quantity of vanilla essence to substitute for the almond essence, or (if you have a week or two in hand) make your own vanilla sugar, which is a nice trick.
To do so, you need:
- caster sugar
- a couple of vanilla pods
- a glass kitchen jar (pasta jar or one of those jars with a rubber seal and a clamp-down lid.
Pour half the caster sugar into the jar, ‘plant’ the vanilla pods in it vertically and pour in the rest of the sugar. The longer you leave it, the more the sugar will pick up the flavour of the vanilla pods.
I’ve only just read this marzipan recipe – the day before Christmas eve!! I’ll try it anyway.
In answer to an earlier question – I once made my marzipan with ground hazlenuts in place of the almonds as my mother was alergic to them. It turned out ok but not as good as the almond kind.
hi there,
just wanted to know with the raw eggs, does the marzipan end up have an eggy smell or taste to it? also the fresh (uncooked) one, is that the closest to the store bought ones?
i love marzipan and the fresh recipe seems quite simple to make.
Hi Amena
The cooked marzipan is the one that’s closest to the store bought kind.
In the uncooked one, you are not aware of the eggs at all. It tastes much richer than the shop bought marzipan.
Thanks so much for this Marzipan recipe!
I’ve decided to make Marzipan Chocolates to give at Christmas and this recipe is perfect. I’ve got about 45 – 50 pieces out and covered them in Lindt 50% chocolate with an almond on the top!
The only thing is, I’m now the proud owner of 50 practice marzipan chocolates – the diet is over!!
Hello!
A bit of a novice question i’m afraid but is there a huge difference between essence and extract ? i can only find the latter and wondering if it’ll be horrible ? Thank you so much for such a lovely website and the happiest of christmases to you.
Hi Amy
The extract will be fine in the marzipan. Just a couple of drops.
Hi
It’s coming to that time of year again and am turning my thoughts to Christmas and found your site. I will probably be very busy on the run up to Christmas as am in retail. does the uncooked marzipan keep if so how long for and how is it best to store it, same question about the cooked marzipan
Thanks for the site it’s great
Mel
I tried making marzipan and I followed the cooked marzipan recipe from Delia’s site ( link given on your page.
The marzipan I made did not turn out very smooth and there were too many cracks in it when ever I tried to roll it out plus it was very difficult to knead and work with as it kept sticking to my hands. I think it was too soft because the flowers I made with it did not stand upright for too long ( I did not even add all the egg mixture to the almonds for fear that the mixture may become softer)
I must add that it tasted fine but like I said it did not look attractive at all with all those cracks in it.
Can you give me any idea of what I did wrong? (sorry this should have been added to the end part of my last comment)
Hi Sonia
I don’t know what went wrong. Need a couple of days to research this. I will get back to you!
Thank you
Your help will be appreciated .
I was also thinking about what may have gone wrong. One thing that I can remember is that in order to remove the almond skin I soaked them in warm water and the almond were not 100% dry when I chopped them up. So they ended up more in a thick paste like form rather the powder form. But since I had never made marzipan before I thought maybe this is how almonds were supposed to turn out .
What is your opinion about this?
Re fresh eggs in marzipan: I always used only egg yolks (not whole eggs), but on one occasion my marzipan fruits (petits fours) went mouldy. A couple of spoons of liquid glucose (add slowly until the right consistency is reached) instead of fresh raw egg yolks solves this problem and works as well.
re Royal icing: instead of water, which makes for a boring icing, mix the icing sugar with lightly beaten egg white and lemon juice. I use plenty of lemon juice and it gives it a great flavour. the egg white keeps the icing soft inside and it still has a nice crisp crust on the outside. It also gives the icing a nice sheen. Make it fairly stiff (but not so stiff it won’t spread) and dollop liberally on the top of the cake – let the marzipan topping dry off for a couple of days first. Then use a flat knife and smooth the icing over the top and down the sides to an even thickness. When covered all over, dip the knife in hot water and gently smooth the cake. Keep repeating this – but don’t allow too much water to get onto the icing. The heat of the knife will melt the sugar a little and make a nice smooth glossy surface. If you do it carefully I guarantee you won’t have lumps and won’t need sandpaper to smooth the icing!
I’ve just made the cooked version. Its quite grainey is this normal? will the non cooked version be smoother?
p.s love this site i’ve made heaps of jams and chutneys this year using your recipies.
I am a newbie cook and I just made this marzipan and covered the cake (also made from your recipe). It is delicious – the marzipan that is as I’ve been eating the leftovers – haven’t tried the cake yet!
Question though – you say it only keeps a week or so due to the raw eggs, and yet obviously the cake won’t get touched until Saturday and then probably take a while to get through – what does this mean for the marzipan?
Sorry if that is a stupid question!
Hi Jo
Strangely once the cake is iced the marzipan doesn’t go off. Our cake lasts easily until the end of January if it’s not eaten before then.
cAN ANYONE tell me why after putting my marzipaned cake in a tin, with foil around it, it ended up wet and sticky, when I opened the tin to ice it. I kept it in tin for 5 days. What am I doing wrong.
Also how long does a cake keep onced iced ? some sites say 7 days, although I thought a cake would keep for several weeks after being iced.
Hi Sheila
Perhaps the tin was put somewhere cold and condensation built up in the tin? Wrap the cake in parchment or greaseproof paper and leave the cake somewhere dry and reasonably warm (such as the airing cupboard as it is so close to Christmas!). It need to be able to breath to dry.
A good Christmas cake should last for months. Our recipe keeps for weeks and it’s not the traditional type.
Re the icing, add water very sparingly and slap it on very thick or it will just roll off the cake.
Hi, thanks for this recipe, it’s so tasty! I don’t think I’ll need to buy shop marzipan again. It tended to fall apart a bit when I was rolling it out, does this happen to you or was I doing something wrong? I did realise afterwards that the eggs weren’t room temperature as I’d taken them straight out of the fridge.
Also, would I be able to post the recipe on my blog with a link to your site?
Can one ice a fruit wedding cake without using almond icing. I had thought I might do two layers of royal icing. Would this work. My daughter is adamant she does not want almond icing. Also my grandson is allergic to nuts and I have left them out of the cake.
I don’t know the answer to this – I’d be worried about bleed through.
If you do try this I’d love to hear how you got on.
Rose – if you read this – can I ask what quantities you use for the royal icing? I have made my own wedding cake, plan to use the above recipe for marzipan and would like to use your recipe for royal icing. I have a large cake to ice – 12″ round.
Thanks guys for a really helpful site with loads of useful comments.
i love the idea of this recipe, my boyfriends father and i love the thorntons marzipan sweets covered in chocolate and i wanted to make something similar. does anyone know if i’m better off using this uncooked recipe or a cooked one to use for making chocolate covered sweets? thanks
Hi Lynda,
I’d use the uncooked recipe as it’s so delicious, just make sure you eat the sweets fairly quickly (I’m sure that won’t be a problem!). I’d say keep them no more than a week or two.
Obviously if you’re worried about the raw egg, then use a cooked marzipan.
Alison
P.S. I made my wedding cake, marzipan, icing and all – lovely!
I’m new to baking and I’m confused, do you marzipan the cake and then have to ice it? Or could you just leave it once you cover the cake with marzipan? Or is there a reason for the icing? Thanks
Hi Mel
The icing makes the marzipan keep well. Marzipan alone would get rather dry too!
I’ve just tried the recipe but substituted 400g of ground walnuts instead of the almonds (I ground them fine myself in the food processor). The resulting mixture has turned out VERY wet – I guess the walnuts don’t soak up moisture as well as as almonds do. I’ve ended up adding approx 500g of icing sugar to the mix and it’s in the fridge as we speak in the hope it’ll firm up further. Luckily there’s plenty of time to let it dry out!
Anyone else attempting walnut marzipan, I’d recommend halving the “wet” ingredients and seeing how it turns out, then adjust from there.
Gosh I didn’t even know that you could make walnut marzipan! Thanks for the advice.
Hi Fiona – you’ve just saved the day. I’d lost my usual marzipan recipe and the one I tried was so dry that it wouldn’t roll out – so I googled ‘make marzipan’ and guess who came up in the top few results? Your marzipan is just so good, thanks very much for sharing the recipe. I even managed to salvage most of the hopeless attempt by incorporating it into the mix a bit at a time (I’ve reworked the remainder but as it is a bit messy will use it in stollen where it can be disguised!)
I was just reading this out of interest as I’ve made my marzipan. I looked at several recipes in my cookbooks, and ended up using Jane Grigson’s from English Food. It’s very different from most recipes. It has far less sugar than any other recipe I’ve seen: for 500 g of almonds, 250 g of sieved icing sugar, 1 egg, and 3-4 tsp of lemon juice (I added a drop of vanilla too).
It was very easy to roll out — not at all sticky. I used Jane’s method of rolling it out on a sheet of baking parchment, used the tin I baked the cake in as a cutting guide, then put it on the cake marzipan-side down and peeled off the paper. Easy peasy!
On its own the marzipan doesn’t taste that interesting, but when it’s covered in incredibly sugary royal icing, cutting down the sugar seems to make sense. Jane Grigson does say you can add another 250 g of sugar and another egg to make it sweeter. I’d guess a spot of brandy wouldn’t go amiss either
Thanks Veronica – Jane Grigson’s is the one I’ve been making for years with 2 to 1 almonds to sugar. No need for almond essence if it tastes of almonds already.
Personally I wouldn’t add any other flavourings except possibly a little alcohol to match that in the cake.
I prefer the taste of golden sugar so I sometimes use golden castor sugar, or I think Billingtons may make a golden icing sugar.
Freshly ground almonds have a better flavour than pre-ground almonds that may have been sitting around for a while. Rather than using ground almonds, buy whole blanched almonds and grind them in the blender to the texture you like. I prefer some small crunchy lumps of almond.
Use the best-tasting almonds you can get – I usually look for organic almonds and skin them by blanching in boiling water for a minute or so. Drain them and pop them out of their skins, then put them in a single layer on kitchen paper to dry them. When they’re skinned, put them on foil on a baking sheet in a low oven for five minutes or so to dry them out.
I sometimes lightly toast a quarter or so to give a stronger flavour.
Mix the marzipan to a dryish consistency which you can roll – too wet and it will be sticky; too dry and it will crack too easily at the edges. I usually do this on a sheet of greaseproof paper as I can easily turn the whole thing over onto the cake.
Once you’ve marzipaned your cake, cross-hatch the top with a knife, and put it under a hot grill for a few minutes to lightly toast it.
This gives a very good, almond-flavoured marzipan, and the leftovers make decorations or a few small sweets which usually disappear very quickly.