As far as I know the capital of marzipan is Luebeck, in Germany. This Hanseatic League port was safe through East and West Germany so long as it could trade in marzipan rather than Marks or Dollars. In any case it is the real topping for your Christmas cakes, to be covered of course with Royal Icing! (Or any other form of icing!)
Ingredients
8oz/250g ground almonds
8oz/250g icing sugar
2 egg yolks
2 tsp lemon
juice.
Method
Mix the almonds and sugar together, add the beaten eggs and mix and knead thoroughly. To cover a cake (eg a Christmas cake) turn upside down and brush over with melted jam and water (apricot is recommended). If you need to stop the mixture sticking to the rolling pin or board use icing sugar as though it were flour in the making of pastry. Roll a piece of paste into a circle the same size as the top of the cake and roll strips for the sides. Leave overnight before covering with white icing.
Comment
Unless you have tried REAL almond paste/marzipan you don't know what you're talking about! Colouring can be added as required if you want to make shapes and figures, but for a straight forward layer on a Christmas cake you can't beat the above recipe.
Page Created: 13th December 2000