She loved the taste of marzipan. The grainy almondy sweet burst of flavor was her favorite. It was more than something to eat though, so much more. It came in so many shapes, so many colors. During Easter, it was yellow chicks, soft brown bunnies, pink kissed lambs and little colorful eggs. Valentine's Day, it was hearts dipped in chocolate or sometimes cupid aiming his bow with his tiny bottom peaking out from a droopy diaper. Christmas, it was Hansel and Gretel, it was the Witch with the cotton ball hair, it was peaches and oranges and bananas and grapes and apples and oh every kind of fruit imaginable piled up on tiny little plates next to the Gingerbread House. Each piece carefully brushed with food coloring, just so. Little pieces of marzipan shapes hid on the house cemented with sugar piping waiting to be discovered by small hands eager for a treat. Marzipan pigs, sheeps and cows grazed outside the candy house. It was a marzipan lover's dream.

Sometimes...she got to help MAKE the little figures with her grandmother...those were the best times. Sitting at the table with the big yellow sunflowered tablecloth in the sunlight, listening to classical music and grandmother humming all jumbled up together. Smelling the 4711 cologne that her grandmother always wore as she leaned over her shoulder to guide young fingers. Molding and shaping, sneaking tiny bites, pinching and pulling, swiping more nibbles, and finally with careful brush strokes, tinting the shades and the shadows in just the right places so they would look "real". It was a warm quiet time, just her and her grandmother, making something from nothing, like magic.

Her grandmother would slip any extra confection into her pocket as she hugged and kissed her goodbye for the trip home. She would wink and put her finger to her lips when the girl's mother wasn't looking. "Our secret", she said with her eyes. The girl would pat her pocket and smile. Both her and her grandmother knew it would be gone before she returned home. In the backseat of her mother's Volkswagen, she would close her eyes, smell the remnants of her grandmother's perfume on her shoulder, slowly savor the taste of almonds, hum a little, and bask in the afterglow her grandmother's love.

Marzipan is a very versatile candy that is used in a variety of ways to compliment desserts. It used with Fondant or alone for cake frostings, or just simple. As candy it is often flavored and colored and shaped into a variety of designs as fruit, holiday themes, or animals.

Legend has it that Italy had a famine that left only their almond crop left untouched. They were forced to find hundreds of ways to prepare almonds to get them through the hard time, which led to the invention of Marzipan. After the famine ended the almond paste was still loved enough to make it into daily life.

Marzipan is essentially a sugared almond paste that is soft enough to frost a cake with without breaking off crumbs. It provides a finish similar to fondant and is desirable because of it. Candy recipes are sometimes slightly altered to provide a firmer texture, but all of them should be relatively the same.

Here is an example of uncooked Marzipan from Frankysattic.com.

This is a pretty basic recipe that will yield enough to cover a cake. Mix all the ingredients and then add enough beaten egg to make a dough. Some recipes involve only egg white or only egg yolk. This is a little dangerous with salmonella, but Marzipan can be store bought. BlueDragon tells me that marzipan can be made with dried egg whites, but she says it does get lumpy easily. I think it's a great idea for no-cook marzipan, it would eliminate the disease aspect. If anyone else has any other additions, please message them to me.

To be considered Marzipan the paste should be at the very least 25% almonds, in many cases it will be higher. The almonds must be blanched and you can buy them that way. If you buy fresh almonds, blanch them as you normally would, then grind them (a food processor will work fine, but take it easy).

Here is the classic cook recipe (from Pastrywiz.com):

Add the sugar to the water until it is completely dissolved, then add the almonds and cook until it stops sticking to the inside of the pan. This can be a little hard, but take it easy. You only have to get close.

No, this is the part that makes it look cool like Fondant. You pour it out onto a marble slab and work it in a figure 8 (see Fondant) with a metal scraper or wooden spoon until it's smooth. Knead by hand as it gets cooler, then store in an airtight container.

Now there are a few other tips. You can use Marzipan under Fondant, like I said before. But it is also used under fruit. You've seen it, some beautiful cake piled high with drippy fruit. Or rock hard icing that would normally be soft because of the moisture from the cake. Marzipan is used in a lot of cases as a tasty moisture barrier.

Here's a quick candy version. Melt a cup of white chocolate, split your Marzipan up into three sections. Color each section Napoleon style, "white" "chocolate" and "strawberry." Flavoring is not entirely necessary, but make sure your flavors mesh before putting them together.

Flatten out your three sections and cut them with a sharp knife into half inch by inch sections (1/8th of an inch thick). Pile color on color. You can do two layers and do fine. Cover with a thin layer of white chocolate and chill. Serve.

If there are any additional questions, feel free to message me. I would love to answer them. Below is a cute cake that uses Marzipan icing. Above that is a the short history I added in near the beginning.

Marzipan History Story
http://www.pride-net.com/1997/october/food/marzipan.htm
Tea Party Cake with Marzipan Frosting
http://www.cakeworkscentral.com/scrapbook/teapotcake.htm

One of the characters in the Homestar Runner series of cartoons.

Marzipan is Homestar's girlfriend. In fact, she's the only female character in the series, and enough of a point has been made of this that another is unlikely to appear.

Personality-wise, Strong Bad has been known to describe her as "a dirty hippie without the dirt". Despite the negative connotations of the description, it's fairly accurate. A vegetarian with activist leanings, Marzipan is also known for her proficiency with the guitar and the ukelele. She has an extreme soft spot for anything cute, which may contribute to her dislike for Decemberween (which, for some reason not yet explained, she associates with killing bunnies).

Design-wise, Sigmund Freud would love this character. To start, she has no arms, neck, or secondary sex characteristics other than long hair, which she keeps in a single ponytail. This leaves her upper body as an upright rod, giving Marzipan the highly-unusual title of being the phallic female of the series. Whether or not she possesses legs is up to debate, as they are always hidden by a long purple skirt. While she doesn't appear to wear a top, the aforementioned lack of an upper body seems to obviate the need for one. Her eyes consist of two circles of unequal size.

As the only female in the series, Marzipan's social life is rather odd. While she is Homestar's girlfriend, many of the other male characters have voiced an attraction to her. Bubs, Coach Z (who Marzipan strongly dislikes), and even Strong Mad have all asked her on dates in the past; Strong Mad even once proposed to her in his own way. Strong Bad is thought to harbor a secret crush on her as well. but he would never admit it even if it were true. For his part, Strong Bad constantly targets Marzipan with prank calls to her answering machine.

In the Kick the Can timeline, Marzipan's counterpart is also named Marzipan. Aside from the slightly higher-pitched voice and normal-sized eyes, the only substantial difference between the Marzipans is that in Kick the Can, Marzipan keeps her hair in two pigtails, rather than the single ponytail.

Marzipan has a counterpart in the Stinko Man K 20X6 timeline, but so far she has not been given a name. Unlike her counterparts in the other timelines, this "anime-Marzipan" is fully humanoid, with actual arms and legs. Her proportions more or less match stereotypical proportions for the anime female, with disproportionately long limbs and hair that, were it straightened out, would probably be twice as long as she is tall. Aside from a strange affinity for Chun Li, little else is known about her.

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.