[Sca-cooks] Re: Cake Class

[Olwen the Odd]

>Olwen the Odd wrote:
>
> > I am certainly no Alys Katharine, nor am I a noted for work in
>sugarplate,
> > but I have made and used it.  There is a good reason why I am not noted
>for
> > my work in that medium.  I do not like it.  It is not warm to the touch
>but
> > feels rather like the flesh of a dead person to me.
>
>Eeeeewwww!  How many dead people have you felt, milady?

Three.  That's three too many.

>
> > When I use it I have
> > found that by mixing in some marzipan I have a whole new substance I
>call
> > marziplate.  It is lots more flexible for the kinds of work that I do
>and
> > does not have that feel of the dead to it.
>
>Fair enough.  Handling-wise, how does this differ from straight marzipan?
>What kinds of work is it good for?
>
Marzipan can take hours or days to dry and some shapes may not hold well
unless you know some tricks.  Sugarplate dries very quickly, sometimes so
quickly that it will crack and split and not leave a nice clean surface and
is rather brittle.  The marriage of the two is a wonderful compromise.
Leaves lots of 'work' time, is strong, dries more evenly to avoid much of
the cracking, is warmer to the touch, and you can gingerly play with the
objects after they are finished see here;
http://www.shado.info/ct-11-02-2002/  Scroll down maybe three quarters of
the way to find DSCN0316.JPG(367390bytes) a picture of the King wearing the
marziplate crown that Morningstar made.  He is being "dubbed" Sir Loin of
Beouf by the Queen holding the marziplate sword she made.  If you scroll
down a bit further you can see the two pieces sitting on the pillow at
DSCN0322.JPG(397156bytes).
It is true that you cann't play with the stuff as long as marzipan, but the
playtime is probably twice what it is with sugarplate, maybe longer.  It can
be mended with rosewater to some degree too.
Olwen
>Selene of the many questions


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