Jerusalem
Do this work on a table covered with something to protect it. Colouring is strong and will spoil things. Wear an apron too and don't wear your best clothes when doing this!
When you open your marzipan packet only use a little at a time and keep the rest of the marzipan covered. Putting the block back in the wrapping and in a closed polythene bag will keep it fresh. This is important as the paste will dry out and crack if you leave it open to the air.
If you find you have hot hands, try and keep a bowl of iced or cool water in the room to dip your hands in to cool them off. Then dry your hands to work with the marzipan, or run your hands under cold water and then dry them. A tiny bit of icing sugar sprinkled on to your dry hands might help too, but not too much, as you will whiten and spoil the look of the marzipan.
Colour a little of the marzipan at a time— then if you get the colour wrong, you have not spoiled all the packet. Dip a cocktail stick or something similar, like a clean thin paintbrush handle, into the colouring and then push that deep into the paste. Then, gently knead the marzipan and see what colour comes out. You may need to add more colour, but if you start pale you can add to it. If you get too much colour at the start you have ruined the colour unless you can mix it with another by just using a little of the very strong colour with more pale marzipan or another colour. Be careful adding the colour.
If you use red you can make apples. These are made by rolling a small amount of marzipan (marble sized) in your hand and make into a smooth ball. You do not want any cracks in the paste. If you are using liquid colour you may get the marzipan paste a bit runny, that is why I recommend paste colours, but if you have liquid ones at home by adding a little icing sugar into the marzipan, you can get rid of the stickiness. You can make the apple stalk by gently pushing the thick rounded end of a clove into the paste in the middle where the stalk should be. Don't press in too far, just enough to make a dimple in the paste.
There, you have made your first fruit! Stand it in a little paper case and make another one. The second one will look far better than the first one and you will get better with each one as you practise more.
Oranges are made very much the same as apples. You need to mix yellow and red colouring to the paste to make orange. Add the colouring with a cocktail stick again. Make the ball first and then gently rub the ball over a grater and you will see you have made the paste look like orange peel. This time add the clove the other way around and the stalk goes into the paste. The rounded bit looks just like the brown bit on the top of an orange.
If you do not colour the marzipan at all, you can make lots of tiny balls. From these you can make a small bunch of grapes. Start by lining up five small balls (the size of peas) and pushing them slightly together so they stick to each other. In front of those line up and push together three balls and then put one ball in the front of the three (this makes a triangle shape). You can add a layer on top, just add two together and one, just inside the triangle shape you first made. You then slightly push them together to look like a bunch of grapes, and push in a clove with the stalk end sticking out into the line of five to make a stem for the bunch of grapes.
This is a starter guide to marzipan fruit for younger children. If you are clever at modelling you can make bananas from yellow marzipan, beginning with a sausage shape. Plums are ovals with a cocktail stick pressed into the long side. This gives a dent just like a real plum. The clove is inserted again with the stalk bit protruding out. You can make peaches and give them a bloom by dabbing on the icing sugar in the little bag. Do not sprinkle huge amounts of icing sugar on— it will not look real.
These make a lovely present at Christmas time. I am sure you can come up with some novel ways to wrap them up. Do not wrap them in polythene. This will make the marzipan damp and will spoil your hard work. Cardboard, paper (doilies) and even a tiny wooden box would be suitable. The paste needs to breathe! Good luck and enjoy yourself!
© Fulwood Methodist Church
15:09:47 Wednesday, 26 October 2005
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