Almond Paste (marzipan substitute)

 

Almond Paste
(makes plenty for a 18-20cm cake)

Ingredients:
125g icing sugar
125g sugar
225g ground almonds
1 egg substitute
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp fresh lemon juice

Method:
Either sift the icing sugar into a bowl, add the rest of the ingredients and beat thoroughly, kneading into a a firm dough, or put all the ingredients in a food processor, and blend until a soft ball is formed.

 

The dough will be quite sticky, so roll it in a little icing sugar, then divide roughly in two. Roll out half of it into a longish rectangle (or two longish rectangles) to fit around the sides. It should be sticky enough that you don't need anything to make it stick well; smooth it roughly, ensuring it touches the plate or board under the cake. 

Then roll out the top into a square (or circle, if its a round cake) to fit the top, and carefully place it over the cake. Smooth it as much as you can, with a little extra icing sugar on your fingers.  

Allow to dry for at least 24 hours before adding royal icing. 

You can also use this almond paste to make decorations for a cake, or covered with chocolate, or any other way in which you might use commercial marzipan. 

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I don't, personally, like marzipan and the commercial varieties often contain ultra-processed ingredients such as glucose-fructose syrup, or sorbitol. It also tends to be quite highly priced, and (to me) tastes unpleasant and artificial. So when I discovered how easy it is to make almond paste at home, some years ago, I stopped buying marzipan for our Christmas cake. And even people who like real marzipan seem to like my version. 

The original recipe uses an egg, but although I'm not a vegan, and there's no salmonella in this country, I really don't like using raw eggs. I have made this, sometimes, with about three tablespoonfuls of aquafaba, and it works well. But I don't always have aquafaba on hand, so I keep in a commercial egg-replacer that I buy at a health-food store, and it works equally well.

I don't recommend using a chia egg for this recipe, as it would look rather strange! I haven't tried it, however. 

A food processor does make almond paste a lot easier than mixing by hand, as is also true for royal icing. I usually begin with adding slightly less fluid than recommended for the egg substitute, and then just enough to ensure that it all goes together. Rolling in icing sugar makes it less sticky, and is necessary anyway; but if it's too soft and liquid it will be impossible to roll out.

I use a silicon mat for rolling, which keeps the work surface less messy, and also helps the product to stick less.