Has anyone ever rolled/covered a cake with "almond paste" (NOT marzipan)?

M

marilynfl

Moderator
I knew I was getting into a pickel here. Covering a cake with almond paste is recommended in a British pastry book "Pretty Party Cakes" by Peggy Porschen. Then she covers that with rolled fondant.

So I bought a 7 pound can of "almond paste" based on the cake supply cashier's reassurance that it can be rolled.

THEN I looked on the Internet (linked) and now I'm all confuddled between it and marzipan. I'm hesitant to open the can and then find out it doesn't work. $36 is $36.

I'd be okay if I knew to definitely add powdered sugar to the paste, but I don't want to waste it experimenting.

http://www.ochef.com/1087.htm

 
Oh, this sounds like fun!

We have a lot of British cake decorating books, and what they're using is the marzipan with the added sugar so it's easier to roll. I can't imagine rolling almond paste because of its texture. However, I've never done it so if someone has and says it works, I bow to your experience. If it were me, I would return the can unopened.

If you want to try it, I would use lots of powdered sugar on the rolling area. That way you'll "grease the skids" as it were, and you'll also be working extra sugar into the almond paste as you roll to make it more pliable.

The other thing, since you will be covering with fondant (which I really dislike, ick. Nice effect, but give me buttercream any day), your almond paste/marzipan coat doesn't have to be perfect. you can roll in sections, 1 side trimmed to fit, one top trimmed to fit, etc.

The mazipan/fondant combo was originally invented to seal fruitcakes (traditional wedding cake in Britan) for long term storage. Now they're putting it on cakes that aren't stored.

I guess just because.

 
Thanks Richard! I figured the two-layer sealing process helps let bakers make the

wedding cake days in advance without it drying out. That's what I was going for, but now I'm worrying about nut allergies, etc, so I may just forgo that whole topic.

The library asked for both chocolate and white cake, so I'm covering the whole thing with fondant to make it appear as one unified book.

 
I've used Odense almond paste

and it is definitely not marzipan. It is kind of a jam consistency, like something you could spread with a knife.
Hope this helps.

 
It certainly helps, Cindy. This is exactly the consistency I thought Mutant Can might contain.

Ixnay on the almond paste layer.

 
Mar, where was the almond paste made?.....

I'm afraid I have found that the product from the States is not always the same as that from the UK...if the recipe is from the UK/SA then UK products should be used for the first attempt, just so one knows what that product is all about.....does this sound confusing?....it is....but it also works the other way round. I have tried to make some American recipes with a UK product and it just is not quite the same.
I am no baker but would not use the almond paste you have in a tin.....

My experience has been for wedding cakes which are solid fruit cakes.....first marzipan then Royal (hard) icing.....the marzipan makes the surface smooth and easily accepts the icing.

I did do this for petit fours way back at cooking school (so long ago, it could have been a dream) these were for easter bonnets. We covered the little sponge cakes with the marzipan which we rolled out in a mixture of icing sugar and corn flour and then covered this with fondant and decorated them with royal icing flowers, ribbons. They turned out fantasticly but far too fiddley for me to carry on with.

I woulda thunk that marzipan and almond paste are one and the same thing..........they taste the same......I would have opened the tin and well, wasted the money......what can you do with almond paste? Take the tin back.

 
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