[Sca-cooks] Marzipan! Fruit!

[Cat Dancer]

On Fri, 12 Aug 2005, Stefan li Rous wrote:

>  Kiri replied to Margaret with:
>> Cat Dancer wrote:
>> > Oooh! Hadn't thought of pomegranates. That could be cool. And maybe
>> > some red/purple plums for more color variety, if I can get the dark
>> > red for the grapes right I'll make some plums as well.
>> >
>> > Hmmm. I might have to do summer berries for a subtlety sometime.
>> >
>> > Margaret
>> 
>> I seem to recall a cool idea for a subtlety that was done in
>> period...make grapes from marzipan, sugar them, then mix them in with
>> real grapes that have been sugared!
>
> I don't imagine you know where you saw this reference do you? Sigh. I've been 
> considering doing this with walnuts or other nut for a number of years. With 
> prizes or something inside the marzipan nuts.

Not Kiri, but I know what she's talking about--we've had almost this 
same exact exchange before (it's in the Flori-thingy). Nope. Not a clue.
>
> Unfortunately, I'm not sure i could create a realistic enough coloring. 
> Especially when see side by side with the real nuts. Walnuts though, at 
> least, don't have a lot of shading and multiple colors.

That's where the applied color comes in.
>
> Margaret, I thought your coloring of your fruits was fantastic. Especially 
> the pears. Some of the best shading I've ever seen. What did you use for 
> stems, real ones off of other pears?

Thank you. The stems and blossom ends of both the apples and pears are 
cloves. The coloring is liquid and/or powder food coloring applied with a 
brush. Learned the theory from my grandfather, although we were less 
concerned with making things realistic, then.
>
> Were the reddish ones all meant to be apples? While the colors were 
> fantastic, the shapes mostly seemed a bit too round and symetrical between 
> the top and bottom. Or were some of these something other than apples, such 
> as tomatoes or oranges?
>
> Stefan

No, they're all apples--Braeburns and Gala apples actually look like that. 
Granny Smiths are even rounder, as were the unknown variety of apples on 
the tree in my parent's yard. But never fear, after settling a few days, 
they're a lot less symmetrical. ;-) Also, I have learned from doing cakes 
that minor inconsistencies (or consistencies, for that matter) don't get 
noticed by anybody except the person who made the cake and/or did the 
decorating.

I have to drag out some foam to let them rest on, though, so they don't 
get flat sides/bottoms while they're drying.

Oranges are next on the list, after I use up more of the yellow and green 
marzipan. Then I try grapes and plums, and pomegranates if I can find a 
good model. I bought fruit the other day to use as models, and I have both 
a Bartlett and a red pear, and a selection of apples. Not sure if I want 
to do peaches, because they're really not considered a fall fruit as near 
as I can figure.

The plan is to have about a third again more of what I'll need for the 
cake, so I have extras. I have another four pounds of marzipan in the 
fridge after this batch is done, and then probably about nine pounds 
of almond paste still kicking around, so I'm unlikely to run out of 
marzipan anytime soon.

Margaret