This marzipan recipe is made from a dough that consists of ground-up almonds, sugar, and flavoring. It is commonly shaped into fruits, vegetables, or other types of foods and has become increasingly popular as favors for weddings. Marzipan candy is fun to make and is only limited by your imagination!
Today I'm going to show you how to make some adorable marzipan pumpkins using this easy marzipan recipe that I'm going to use as cake toppers for my pumpkin spice cake. You could package these up and gift them in a candy box or even use them as cupcake toppers.
What's In This Blog Post
Ingredients
All you need to make this marzipan recipe is some finely ground almond flour, powdered sugar, corn syrup (or honey), and some flavoring. You can also grind your own flour using blanched almonds if you have a strong food processor although I find using almond flour to be much much easier and it results in a finer marzipan.
How To Make Marzipan
- Place almond flour and sugar in the bowl of your stand mixer with the paddle attachment (or you can mix by hand with a spatula).
- Add in your flavoring and the corn syrup and blend for 1 minute until the starts sticking together. If your marzipan seems dry, add in another teaspoon of corn syrup and keep blending.
- Finish kneading your marzipan on the counter with your butter until smooth. It should feel fairly stiff and a bit sticky.
- Wrap the marzipan up in plastic wrap and seal in a ziplock bag. Refrigerate for an hour or so until it's cool enough to handle. Keeps in the fridge for 6 weeks or freeze for 6 months or more.
How to make marzipan pumpkins
Today I'm making some cute marzipan candy pumpkins from this marzipan recipe but you can make any shape really! Fruits, vegetables, tiny donuts, the options are limitless! All you need is a little food coloring (I like Americolor food coloring) and some edible dusts (I like TheSugarart dusts).
For tools I'm just using some simple modeling tools but you could use the end of a paintbrush or a toothpick.
Step 1 – Coloring the marzipan
Divide the marzipan recipe and knead until smooth. I wanted about the same amount of colors for each of my pumpkins and then a small amount for the stems. If your marzipan is really sticky, use gloves and apply a little bit of vegetable shortening to your hands.
I made white, ivory, dark orange, medium orange, yellow, light green, and brown, but you can make whatever colors you want.
How to color marzipan
- Yellow - add about ½ teaspoon of electric yellow and 1 drop of egg yellow to about 1 cup of uncolored marzipan and knead together.
- Dark Orange - add about ¼ teaspoon of electric orange to ½ cup of the yellow marzipan and knead together. You don't want to add straight orange to marzipan, so make sure to build the colors.
- Medium Orange - add about 4 drops of electric orange to ½ cup of the yellow marzipan and knead together.
- White - add 3 drops of bright white food coloring to ½ cup of uncolored marzipan.
- Green - add 2-3 drops of electric yellow and 3-4 drops of leaf green to ½ cup of uncolored marzipan and knead together.
- Brown - add 3-4 drops of chocolate brown food coloring to ¼ cup of uncolored marzipan and knead together.
- White - add 3-4 drops of white food coloring to ¼ cup of uncolored marzipan and knead until smooth.
Step 2 – Be creative with the sizes of your pumpkins, I made small, medium, and large. For small pumpkins, use about ½ teaspoon of marzipan, for medium pumpkins use about 1 ½ teaspoons, and for large pumpkins use about a tablespoon. Roll it into a ball.
Step 3 – Place the ball down on a table and use a ball tool or the end of a paintbrush to make a small indent at the top in the center.
Step 4 – Use a modeling tool or a toothpick to indent some lines, dragging the tool from the center indent to the bottom of the pumpkin. Clean off your modeling tool after a few indents, as it will start to get sticky.
I like to then use my fingers to round out the ridges to make them look more realistic.
Step 5 – Take a tiny piece of the brown marzipan and roll it into a triangle shape. Place that onto the center indent at the top and use the end of your modeling tool or toothpick to push the base of the brown marzipan into the side ridges of the pumpkin. Snip off the very tip of the brown marzipan with scissors to make it look like a stem.
Step 6 – Use a darker orange or red to dust in the lines of the pumpkin to add depth and interest to the marzipan candy design.
I used medium-dark chocolate petal dust for my white pumpkins and dark green dust for my green pumpkins. For other types of fruits and vegetables, you can also use food coloring and a fine paintbrush to add even more detailing. The surface of marzipan is not super smooth so whatever you make naturally looks very realistic.
Marzipan candy does not need to be refrigerated unless you're not going to use it for a while. Keep it sealed in a plastic bag or container for 6 weeks or freeze for 6 months or more.
Tips For Success
- Use finely ground almond flour for a finely textured marzipan or grind your own from blanched almonds
- Let marzipan rest before your shape it into candy
- You can flavor marzipan with different types of candy flavoring depending on the shapes you are making
- You can add cocoa powder to marzipan to make it chocolate
- You can use marzipan to cover your cakes in place of fondant
- You can roll the marzipan into balls and dip it into tempered chocolate to make chocolate covered marzipan candies.
FAQ
Almond paste and marzipan both use almonds and sugar, but marzipan is typically sweeter and smoother, often used for decorative purposes or as a candy. Almond paste has a higher almond content and is usually used as a filling or ingredient in baked goods
Stored in the refrigerator, homemade marzipan has quite a long shelf life and may last up to 4-5 weeks. Make sure to wrap your marzipan in cling film and place it in an airtight bag or container to retain its moisture.
How do you tell if marzipan is bad? The main signs that marzipan has gone bad are changes in color, smell, or texture. If the marzipan has turned hard, overly dry and brittle, or shows any signs of mold, it's definitely time to throw it away.
Related Recipes
Recipe
Equipment
- Ball tool and sculpting tool, or the end of a paintbrush and a toothpick.
- Scissors
- Paint brush for dusting
Ingredients
- 5 ounces almond flour (Fine) I like bobs redmill
- 6 ounces powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon almond extract or vanilla or rose extract
- 3 ounces corn syrup
- 1 Tablespoon butter (optional for kneading)
- electric yellow, leaf green, bright white, egg yellow, ivory, chocolate brown, electric orange, red, Americolor soft gel paste food color
- optional buttercup, cut kiwi, lemon, almond and poppy petal dust I get mine from the www.thesugarart.com
Instructions
How To Make Marzipan
- Place almond flour and sugar in the bowl of your stand mixer with the paddle attachment (or you can mix by hand with a spatula).
- Add in your flavoring and the corn syrup and blend for 1 minute until the starts sticking together. If your marzipan seems dry, add in another teaspoon of corn syrup and keep blending.Finish kneading your marzipan on the counter with your butter until smooth. It should feel fairly stiff and a bit sticky.
- Wrap the marzipan up in plastic wrap and seal in a ziplock bag. Refrigerate for an hour or so until it's cool enough to handle. Keeps in the fridge for 6 weeks or freeze for 6 months or more.
Marzipan Candy Pumpkins
- Follow my video tutorial for instructions.Knead the homemade or store-bought marzipan and divide into sections to color. If your marzipan is really sticky, use gloves and apply a little bit of vegetable shortening to your hands.I divided into 7 sections and made white, ivory, dark orange, medium orange, yellow, light green and brown, but you can make whatever colors you want. You can use fondant or modeling chocolate to make these pumpkins too, but marzipan is so fun and tastes great!For yellow, add about ½ teaspoon of electric yellow and 1 drop of egg yellow to about 1 cup of uncolored marzipan and knead together.For dark orange, add about ¼ teaspoon of electric orange to ½ cup of the yellow marzipan and knead together. You don't want to add straight orange to marzipan, so make sure to build the colors. For medium orange, add about 4 drops of electric orange to ½ cup of the yellow marzipan and knead together.For white, add 3 drops of bright white food coloring to ½ cup of uncolored marzipan.For green, add 2-3 drops of electric yellow and 3-4 drops of leaf green to ½ cup of uncolored marzipan and knead together.For brown, add 3-4 drops of chocolate brown food coloring to ¼ cup of uncolored marzipan and knead together.
- Be creative with the sizes of your pumpkins, I made small, medium and large. For small pumpkins, use about ½ teaspoon of marzipan, for medium pumpkins use about 1 ½ teaspoons, and for large pumpkins use about a tablespoon. Take the amount of marzipan you desire and roll it into a ball.
- Place the pumpkin down on a table and using a ball tool or the end of a paintbrush, make a small indent at the top in the center.
- Use a modeling tool or a toothpick to indent some lines, dragging the tool from the center indent to the bottom of the pumpkin. Clean off your modeling tool after a few indents, as it will start to get sticky. I like to then use my fingers to round out the ridges to make them look more realistic.
- Take a tiny piece of the brown marzipan and roll it into a triangle shape. Place that onto the center indent at the top and use the end of your modeling tool or toothpick to push the base of the brown marzipan into the side ridges of the pumpkin. Snip off the very tip of the brown marzipan with scissors to make it look like a stem.
- Optional: Use petal dust to add highlights to the pumpkins and make them look realistic. I like to mix and match my colors, and use a makeup brush or paintbrush to add color to the ridges and outsides of the pumpkins.
- Store marzipan pumpkins in the refrigerator for up to 6 weeks.
Anne says
I LOVE marzipan! The funny thing is, I used to hate it. My sister once worked at a Danish bakery in Seattle and everything seemed to have almond paste and/or marzipan in it - total almond overload. But when I made a maple-apricot cake last year and decorated it with marzipan apricots, I discovered that I really love it now. You've got a great website Liz!
Claire says
I can’t wait to include little marzipan treats with my holiday cookies this year! Do you think the paste could be pushed into silicone molds to make shapes or is it best shaped by hand? Would you grease the molds with shortening first? Thank you!
Elizabeth Marek says
Oh yea definitely! I'd put the marzipan in the freezer to help pop them out of the molds as well.
Donna M says
So I could use these as I would fondant creations for decorating cakes? This would be awesome!
Elizabeth Marek says
Yes you definitely can