Homemade marzipan is so delicious that my brother’s family up in Birmingham who had spent years hating marzipan, found this stuff absolutely yummy!  Scraped it right off their plates.  So I kind of recommend making it rather than using shop-bought stuff.  There’s a much higher percentage of ground almonds in it and no artificial-tasting almond extract.

It’s fast and easy once you experiment with the consistency you need for rolling.

• 400g/3 and a half cups ground almonds or 4 cups almond meal (which is finer)
• 150g/two thirds of a cup caster/superfine sugar (preferably golden unrefined)
• 250g/2 cups icing sugar (preferably golden)
• 2 medium free-range eggs (fresh), beaten – about 114g
• a little colouring gel or powder (NOT LIQUID) – good quality (Wiltons) as required for your recipe

1. Sieve the ground almonds and icing sugar into a big bowl.  If there are 4 or 5 tablespoons of rougher almonds left in the sieve towards the end, you can just tip them in.  Life is too short to spend it all sieving! 🙂
2. Whisk in the caster sugar.
3. Add three quarters of the beaten egg and knead the marzipan paste till combined.  The paste should be soft and not cracking around the edges.  If it’s still too dry then add more of the egg till you have the correct consistency.  Warning:  it took me some time and patience to reach the correct consistency.  You’ll see if it’s okay when you start rolling it out.  If it cracks, also when you start lifting it, you need to add more egg.  Don’t roll it out on too much icing sugar, as it gets drier and cracks more.
4. If not using immediately, store it in the fridge tightly wrapped in plastic wrap or clingfilm.
5. Before using, knead and massage it if necessary to make it pliable again.

Enjoy this wonderful homemade marzipan and be proud! 🙂