Marzipan

So my first foray into god knows what, was Marzipan duh duh duh. For those of you who do not know what marzipan is, it is basically very very sugary almond fondant. I mean fondant has a taste but gods does marzipan. It is sooo sweet and nummy, however, it is soo sweet and most people don't actually enjoy it. Unfortunately it is the only and i really mean ONLY dessert my husband will eat, he won't even eat Martha Stewart cream cheesy chocolate brownies which are to die for and I made a batch every weekend for like 2 months straight. That is besides the point, so every year for his birthday his parents go to Larsen's bakery in Ballard and get a Marzipan cake for him and his twin brother. ONCE a year, but this year he was on the boat for his birthday, also this is the first year Delicious knows what a birthday is so I decided; against my better judgement; to make marzipan from scratch. With help from the kiddo.
I got my recipe from Emeril Lagase and the food network web site. The basic gist is (not the actual recipe if you want that go to www.foodnetwork.com)
*8oz almond paste ( it comes in cans or a roll tube thing at the grocery store.)

*About 2 Cups of powdered sugar. (why can't they just say powdered sugar anyways why always confectioners)

*Roughly 3 Tablespoons of Light Karo syrup. The light refers to the color you don't want dark because it will make your marzipan dark and marzipan is something you want light so you can change colors by adding food coloring.

*So you want to beat up the almond paste first. To break it apart because it literally comes out of the packaging in one big brick. So break that shit up.
Then add just a little of your powdered sugar to start the incorporation process, beat that for a little while until crumbs start to form.
Now here comes the use your own judgement time ( a time i did not take advantage of by the way)
you can A) add ALL of the remaining sugar and try to incorporate it all at once or
B) you can slowly add the sugar and incorporate a little at a time.
In hindsight i would have gone with B. the recipe told me i could just add it all but it didn't incorporate well enough. so i would try B unless you are a brave soul who likes the mess.

Once all the sugar is incorporated, you add the Karo syrup and again beat to incorporate. You should end up with crumb like stuff. This is good. if it is gooey you have too much Karo so add more sugar. Do this maybe while you have it in a bowl ( again in hindsight this would have been great) once you have your crumb like stuff put it on a clean non stick counter. I actually used a silpat sheet because nothing sticks to that mother.

Knead the dough; and it is a dough. Make it a smooth ball like thing. You can continue to add sugar and syrup as needed to keep the dough like consistency. Not to sticky, not to break apart-y.
Once kneaded go ahead and wrap tightly in Saran wrap or in a zip lock bag (that's what i did) and refrigerate until needed. The next day you can roll it out and then like fondant place it over your masterpiece of a box cake and voila marzipan. You can break off chunks and knead in color if you want to make pretty things like flowers or even things shaped vaguely like dinosaurs but everyone is too polite to ask what in gods name is that creation.
I also recommend you temper it with a smooth and not too sweet cake. Don't go with chocolate and sugar frosting/ filling. Go with a yellow or white cake, and a custard like filling ( I always use Dream whip frosting.) you can use fruit preserves as well. I have rules about fruit in my dessert but raspberry would be really good. Or just raspberries them selves in the middle and as decoration on top. why not.
so beyond the recipe:
I decided after a day of very painful back problems; ( blew my back out 3 weeks ago and am still in the throws of agony it's like back labor all over again except without the epidural) and 1 SOMA, ;that Delicious (it's starting sound porny now I need a new name for her; gimme ideas) would help me make this marzipan. It started well I followed the recipe and when I got to the add in the remainder of the sugar little sugary almond paste balls went everywhere. My daughter ate every single one of them. I added my syrup, there was no crumb like effect so just spoonula-d it out ( by the way Thanks Rachel ray for the word spoonula "its like a spatula and a spoon" how yum-o is that. ugh) so I have this now sticky whitish substance stuck on my hand ( not that we haven't had that happen to us at soe point in our lives) the spoonula, the bowl and the non stick silpat. I add another bit of sugar; still too sticky then I add more sugar still to sticky. meanwhile my daughter is still finishing the hunt for minor specks of this stuff everywhere. And roaring like a dinosaur. I almost started saying the our father in case she had become possessed. Suffice to say the marzipan did not become the consistency I desired but I refrigerated it anyways. Washed everything, came downstairs and updated my face book because why not, took a shower and hoped for the best. Meanwhile my daughter went from balls of marzipan to growling as she ate cat food. She also took a shower then shockingly enough the sugar high wore off and nighty night she went. God if this is what she is like on marzipan remind me to tell her NOT to call when she is high on acid or speed or coke. I don't need a growling, cat food eating teenager on my hands. This is the part where mothers usually say if you need me even if your high call me and no matter the time I will be there. Not me man if this is what you are like high I don't want to be there, I don't want you in my car and I certainly don't want you in my house. sleep on your side and call me when it wears off so I can give you the day after lecture.
I went to bed and this morning I have a lovely batch of marzipan waiting to be roled out and layed over my husbands birthday cake

An aside:
I watched the Hannah Montana movie last night with 1 soma, and 2 percosets. I was soo stoned it made me cry. ( the baby was in bed and it was like 10:30) there will be no mocking.

NEXT WEEK:
Eggs. something other than scrambled or poached. we shall see. I can only scramble and slightly burn my eggs and it takes 3 tries to make a good poached egg. so let us venture into the olrd of eggs. also hadboiled won't count. any ideas?

also here is the final product picture. the cake is surrounded by my fridge. i found that unlike fondant i could not just magically lay the marzipan nicely over the cake so I put it on in pieces and tried in vain to keep it smooth. (thank god i made a double batch.) i am not sure how to be a pro at this but practice might help.
here you go actually it is at the top not the bottom like i wanted but oh well. you see the finale before the story.