Here is another wonderful cupcake garnish!  The flowers you see here are made from marzipan and are not only beautiful, but very tasty too!

Marzipan is made of finely ground almonds mixed with sugar to create a paste that can be molded into cake icing, wonderful candies, and cupcake garnishes!  It is very delicious and can be found in any baking aisle!

Still not sure what marzipan is?  Well, If you have ever been in a candy store, you have seen marzipan.  The beautiful miniature fruit candies found in the display case are made from marzipan that has been colored and molded into beautiful shapes, such as apples, oranges, or bananas by a skilled candy maker. Next time you see them, try one.  They are very tasty!

Creating this garnish was very easy.  Here is the short list of what is required.

Fondant Cutters – mine are from Wilton and I found them at Michaels for less than $4.
Marzipan – this comes in small cans or tubes in any baking aisle.
Gel Food Colors – these now come in the multipack – love it!

To color the marzipan:  Break off the amount you think you will need;  microwave for just a few seconds  to warm it slightly; add a couple of drops of food coloring; knead the marzipan to incorporate the color.  You may need to add a little water if it seems dry, a little powdered sugar if it seems too moist.

Rolling out the marzipan:  Cover your surface with a light coating of powdered sugar; roll the marzipan to a thickness of about 1/4″.  Using trial and error, decide what thickness works for your project.

Cutting the flowers:  Using your fondant cutters, cut out the flowers for your decorations. The tricky part to this, is removing the flower from the cutter.  Because the flowers are delicate, you will need to use toothpicks or bamboo sticks to remove them from the cutter.  I used both the sharp and blunt ends of the picks to accomplish this.

The cupcakes you see here were for a wedding shower and because I needed to garnish 40 cupcakes, I made the flowers a couple of days before the event.  I stored them on wax paper in an airtight container.  The multi-colored flowers I stacked before storing them because the marzipan will dry some and it will be more difficult to get the pieces to stick together if they dry too much.  You can always use a little corn syrup “glue” when stacking flowers.  Not too much though or they will slide apart!

I used Marzipan to decorate my Gluten-free Chocolate Ganache Cake from a previous post!  Delicious and beautiful – gotta love it!