How to Make Marzipan Carrots

Marzipan fruits and vegetables

Marzipan is a sweet paste made of ground almonds and sugar, which is often used to make edible sculptures. It is relatively easy to work with and tastes more pleasant than other edible sculpture mediums, such as fondant. Marzipan carrots can add colorful decoration to carrot cakes, bunny cakes for Easter, or can be eaten on their own as a dessert or sweet snack.

Things You'll Need

• 7 oz. box of marzipan
• Red food coloring paste or liquid
• Yellow food coloring paste or liquid
• Green cake decorating gel (optional)
• 10 parsley sprigs (optional)
• Toothpick

Instructions

1. Remove marzipan from the box and knead until it is warm and malleable. To avoid sticky hands, dust powdered sugar on your hands or wear plastic gloves.

2. Make a hole in the center of the marzipan and add the food coloring. Knead it evenly through the marzipan with your hands until you reach the desired orange color. Start with a little color at first, as you can always add more food coloring, but it is impossible to remove it from the marzipan if you start with too much. Be conservative with the red coloring, as too much can affect the flavor of the marzipan.

3. Separate the marzipan into 30 pieces. Make the pieces into balls by rolling the marzipan between your palms.

4. Shape the ends of the balls into points, making a cone shape.

5. With the toothpick, press lines into the cones to imitate the texture of a carrot.

6. Add the carrot stems. If you want a realistic-looking carrot, add bits of parsley to the ends of the carrot. If you are placing the carrots on top of a cake or cupcake, draw the stems on with green cake decorating gel.

7. Allow the carrots to air-dry overnight.

Tips & Warnings

• Marzipan sculptures will stay fresh for up to three weeks if refrigerated in an airtight container.

• Experiment with varieties of this confection--try different colored food coloring and shapes to make pumpkins, strawberries and bananas.

• Baking the marzipan carrots will help them dry quicker, but will alter the taste a bit and give a stiffer, crunchier texture. Some people prefer the taste of baked marzipan to raw, and some candy shops bake their marzipan sculptures as a general rule. If you choose to bake them, put the oven on a very low heat and monitor them carefully, checking on them every few minutes. The texture should be hard, but not too crunchy.

References

• Andre Prost, Inc.: Marzipan Carrots
• German Food Guide: Marzipan