Could someone tell me about almond paste? What would you use it for? Do you usually make it from scratch or buy it? What does it taste like?

It can be made from scratch just like fondant except you use fine almond ground.My mom has made it and it's pretty easy.It is usually placed on top of fruitcake and left by itself.It tastes like a dull almond paste.Very popular with the english.

So it is rolled out then? It is the same as marzipan? I love almond extract, does it have any of the same flavor?

it was my understanding that almond paste is the base ingredient to make marzipan it is also used in some cookies most people buy it but I suppose you could make it if you had the means to grind the almonds that fine.

I have yet to try this recipe, but it seems simple enough.

Almond Paste
Ingredients:
10 oz dried blanched almonds
10 oz powdered sugar
5 oz sugar
1/4 cup corn syrup
1 cup water
Instructions:
Make a sugar syrup with by placing the water, sugar, and corn syrup in a saucepan. Stir it to combine. Bring it to a boil and let it boil for a few seconds. Let it cool.
Place the almonds in a food processor and process them to a fine powder. Add the powdered sugar. With the food processor running, slowly add the sugar syrup until the mixture forms a paste.
Store the almond paste tightly covered. If you will be storing it for more than a week, store in the refrigerator.

I am told that you can also find it in the specialty foods section of some grocery stores.

Here in the US, and in other parts of the world, almond paste Is the base ingredient for marzipan, but it is also used in pastries and cookies world wide. It is basically almonds, sugar and water, ground together.

Marzipan has egg whites or corn syrup added to it to make it more pliable, and therefore used to either cover a cake under a fondant layer, or to make figures and flowers. It is also considered a candy in some cultures.

A website to learn about marzipan figures is www.marzipanworld.com.

Theresa

So if you covered the cake in marzipan/almond paste you then might cover it with fondant? why would you do that? is it not as smooth?

Solo makes an excellent almond paste. In fact my european baker MIL uses this only now. It tastes good and lessens the hassle when it comes to making marzipan. If you go to foodnetwork.com Emeril Lagasse has a great simple recipe that I use all the time.

Is solo a brand name? Where do you find it?

I even have a DVD from Britain where the lady uses marzipan under her royal icing. I thought that it was a neat idea. She covered the cake in marzipan then covered it in royal icing and achieved a really smooth finish.

Marzipan and almond paste are used to mean exactly the same thing over here. We cover our cake in them before applying fondant or royal icing. Our cakes are traditionally a rich dark fruit cake. We cover the cake in marzipan as it seals the fruitcake and stops any of the dark colouring from the cake seeping up and staining the pastel coloured icing

I find the marzipan tends to be made with inferior ingredients and contains a lot of almond essence and flavouring. Sometimes this can make the marzipan taste very 'chemically' [is that a word??]
I always use almond paste as it is made with ground almonds and has a much more subtle flavour.
It is used in the UK to cover a fruit cake before either the royal icing or the sugapaste is applied. It is applied by painting the cake with boiled apricot jam to seal then the almond paste sticks to it. I was told by a teacher that the apricot jam is required to seal the cake as you can have a reaction with the fruit and the sugars in the almond paste.
I always use almond paste on my sponge cakes as it gives a nice smooth surface on which to apply your sugarpaste.
It is just rolled out the same as sugarpaste.

Does the oil in the almond paste/marzipan help keep the royal icing soft enough to slice through? What about piped roses or lace, do they soften enough to wilt, or do they keep their shape?

Thanks -

Theresa

Royal icing is not a soft icing. It sets hard. And any royal icing roses or lace remains hard and keeps its shape

tmriga,
Talk to Miss Baritone about Royal Icing - she's a whiz at it!

No the oil doesn't really affect the hardness of royal. To stop it setting so hard try adding glycerine. I teaspoon to every 1lb of sugar. It does still set crispy but can be sliced with no problems and isn't so hard to eat. Please feel free to pm me if you have any questions

I've had a half-used container of almond paste in my refrigerator for about a year now. How long does it stay good?

The biggest difference in Marzipan is that it is milled finer and has more sugar then almond paste. It is more pliable for rolling and modeling. Almond Paste has a stronger aroma and is great in specialty baking.They both basically have the same ingredients.