Easy marzipan recipe and a few icing tips
Comments(28)
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.