Have you ever played with marzipan?  Trust me when I say it gives you an excuse to go back to your Play-Doh days!  It’s fun to be a kid again!

Over the next few weeks, I will share a few favorite fall desserts that perhaps you might enjoy bringing to your Thanksgiving feast, the office, work, school, or share with family.  To get ahead, I decided to make some embellishments for those desserts.  Marzipan is easy to work with and will save in an airtight container for weeks!  So make them now for your holiday desserts.

You should be able to find marzipan at your local grocer on the baking aisle.  I am just making pumpkins this time but you can make  all kinds of wonderful things with marzipan so tap into that right brain of yours and create something cool.

To color marzipan, you will need some food coloring.  I use Wilton or Americolor brand.  Add some color to the marzipan and knead it in until evenly distributed.  Continue adding color until it’s the right shade you want. Keep a few damp paper towels close by because you will need to keep the marzipan wrapped in the damp towels.  Also, you will need to wipe your hands, and tools you might be using to keep them from sticking.

Once you are happy with the color, pinch off a bit and form a ball.  Then, using a toothpick I made the lines in the pumpkin and placed on a piece of wax paper.  Marzipan dries out quickly so keep it under damp paper towels while you work.  You can see the wrapped marzipan under the paper towel in the picture above.

Using a whole clove, press the stem into the top of the pumpkin.  Now, you may want to keep your pumpkins whole, but for my purpose, I ended up cutting them in half and putting a stem on each half.  I let them dry overnight and then placed them into an airtight container for later use.

Here’s a picture showing them on some pumpkin cheesecake I made last year.  You will notice some are left whole and others are halved.

Have some fun and make some creative toppers with marzipan.