This week I just enjoy painting. No cooking, no baking, no kitchen massacre. This happened to me all of a sudden and I blame the red hearts and pink ribbons. You can guess it, I am into the Valentines love this season. Seriously, if you know me then you will be surprised at this point, because I am not the romantic girl type. I am not to be smitten with red roses and the like, I always found it to be rather ridiculous and silly. Maybe that’s because I am more like a wild girl, you know the type of girl who used to plan war games as child or the one who will and can’t wear pink shirts. Well, it looks like I am over that now…
I always enjoyed working with Marzipan. It’s such an easy shapeable material and in Europe it is a very common candy treat. Of course the humble almond paste has some plus points since we can use it in our deco. You might have seen those wonderful pretty cakes with little detailed colored shaped as decorations. Those are often Marzipan forms and the same almond paste is commonly used to cover even whole cakes instead of using fondant.
But today I chose something easier to make, marzipan candy hearts, which even looks pretty and of course its more of a healthier treat since you will be using Marzipan Almond paste. I used raw marzipan paste but the same can be achieved with home made marzipan. The idea was taken from my childhood. We used to have catholic communion groups back in Primary school and I remember one session where the mother of a friend came up with the idea of painting little hearts for mothers-day. It was quite a highlight and we kids loved painting our little hand formed shaped with shaded textures. Of course marzipan can be easily died with food colors but its obviously more fun to paint your own candy with nice bright colors and even add textures and details.
Marzipan itself is never completely white, in fact one could call it rather beige or maybe cream. The Almond mass is quite “wet” too, so to color multiple shades you will need to dry your formed marzipan first. You have 2 options. Either you dry them naturally by leaving them out over night or by letting them dry in the sun or you can pop them into the oven and dry them at a low temperature for about 20 minutes. I chose the latter this time, simply because I am living in a tropical climate and the humidity can be a candy killer. Further I chose the oven as well because lots of dust accumulated these days outside and I didn’t want my hearts to get full of crap. It’s up to you which drying technique you choose before and after painting your marzipan hearts. It’s important that your marzipan is dry when you attempt to paint it and when they are ready to be gifted to your sweetheart.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
I love your blog. I love your pictures and these little hearts made my day! Ciao a presto, Pat
These are such cute mini candies for valentines day
Cheers
CCU
These are so cute. I have been wanting to try and make homemade marzipan and it would be fun to make them into these cute hearts.
Really cute! Definitely something I should try sometime. I’d use the oven to dry these, just because it’s faster and easier to control. Fun post – thanks.
Oh such cuteness Helene!! Love the candies and hope your Valentine is full of love too
These are SO, SO CUTE!! I’ve never worked with marzipan before, but now I want to give it a try. What great little bites for my valentine.
These are so cute! I love heart-shaped anything and we love marzipan candy here at home. I will make these ~ after all you can celebrate Valentine’s every day, any day. Thanks for sharing, Helene!