Marzipan WIN!

So, the marzipan recipe was a complete failure, and we ended up with something which was like oatmeal. Tim Ferguson, canon lawyer for the Archdiocese of Detroit, suggested it could be used as unicorn feed.

Lacking a unicorn, however, there wasn't much use for it. So, it languished in the fridge while we went hunting for marzipan.

Marzipan is easier to find than unicorns, although the first place we tried didn't have any. Nor did the third. The second didn't have it either (if it did, why would we have looked in the third place?) but when we asked a person there if they stocked marzipan she asked, "What's marzipan?"

So, I guess you don't carry it, huh?

The fourth place we looked at was Holiday Market, which carries all kinds of cooking and bakery items. We found the marzipan! Our hunt was successful!

Behind me is the Annoyed Woman. She is annoyed. She is annoyed because I was taking a picture of myself, with the marzipan. She had to wait to buy her bakery item. Meh, whatever, right?

Well, no. I only just learned, from Liza (who was there), that said Annoyed Woman (who is annoyed) was buying a 2 lb bag of baking soda.

To be frank, that kind of scares me. Can't you build a bomb big enough to kill God with baking soda and other household chemicals?

So, once we had escaped the Annoyed Woman, who is annoyed, we returned home and removed the cake from the pan, turning it upsidedown as we did so (I say we, but Liza was asleep at this point, because Liza was tired). The above image shows the cake sitting on the platter we used for it.

The recipe for the cake suggests you use marzipan to fill any gaps at the new-bottom of the cake. Now, I didn't want to use the marzipan we had bought because we only had a bit, and it was expensive, and if we go back to get more the Annoyed Woman might be there and be annoyed.

So, I used the unicorn-feed to fill in the gaps, using it like spackle and smoothing it all out. It seemed to work pretty well, although we'll have to see how it tastes.

I then busted out one of the two tins of marzipan and rolled it out into a circle. I had to pieces-part it together because it wouldn't roll properly, and I didn't have enough to roll out a big sheet and cut the circle out of that. I was having to roll it pretty thin, because Annoyed Woman (who is annoyed) stopped me from getting more (also, expensive - but Annoyed Woman is a better excuse).

Marzipan isn't that sticky - especially when you have rolled it out with icing sugar so it does not stick! So, you have to use some kind of warm jam as glue. Traditionally, it is apricot jam, but we didn't have any. So, we used Irish Kiss marmalade, from The Old Rectory, Stratford ON which we bought when we were on vacation there during the holiday we didn't blog about because we were too tired. Anyway, fine marmalade from great people. In the microwave, heat it up, use it as glue.

That is the top circle stuck on, all pieces-parted together. I wasn't too concerned about it, as it was going to be covered in the royal icing.

Here is the cake, fully covered in marzipan. Not much to say, really. In fact, a lot of these pictures are like that, I suppose.

Royal icing - one and half cups of icing sugar, and one egg white. All very simple and easy, although you initially think there is not enough liquid and you want to add more. Here is a hint; don't.

Here is the cake with the royal icing applied. Now, there is really not enough icing here to actually cover the cake - it needs more layers, most definitely. However, this is the first layer and it covers the cake quite evenly. It is all exciting and fun. It seems to be drying pretty quickly and I think I will be able to add another layer tomorrow!

Tremendous excitement, I am sure you will agree. And, if you don't, well then you are annoyed. Like the Annoyed Woman.