Making Marzipan Candy Vegetable Garnishes
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Making marzipan candy is a fun and easy homemade gift for the holidays. It also makes a beautiful garnish on baked goods like cakes, cupcakes, and cookies. This is a fun project to do with kids too!

What are marzipan candies?
Marzipan fruits and vegetables are popular candy in Europe especially around Christmas time and Easter. They are usually found in sweet shops or bakeries.
What’s marzipan made out of?
Marzipan is a blend of ground almonds, sugar, raw egg whites and glucose syrup or corn syrup. Other flavorings can be added such as orange blossom water or rose water. Unlike almond paste, marzipan is considered a candy.
In its natural state, it’s very light or white, which makes it easy to color. It’s also firm and easy to mold and shape. Marzipan can also be used as a filling in cakes or pastries. Although you can make it from scratch, I prefer to buy it, since I usually use it as a garnish or as a supplement to other holiday desserts.
How do you make marzipan into fruit shapes?
First of all be sure to buy marzipan, and not almond paste, because they have different textures and purposes.
Almond paste is great for baking, like in this Almond Bread, but is too soft for molding. If you use gel food coloring, (affiliate link), which I prefer, use toothpicks to add the color a teeny bit at at a time, until the color is to your liking. It’s easy to add more coloring, but difficult to lighten it once it’s too dark. Toothpicks are perfect for adding detail to the fruits or vegetables.
Lettuce
- Make a small ball for the base of the lettuce. Press small pieces of marzipan with your fingers to give the edges of the lettuce a rough frilled look Add frilled layers around ball for lettuce.
Carrots
- Make a tapered cone shape. Make a small indentation in the larger end for the leaves with a toothpick.
- Use the edge of the toothpick to make random indentations in the sides of the carrot.
Radishes
- To make radishes, blend a little bit of the white marzipan with the red marzipan. Make a round ball with a long tapered end for the root part of the radish. Make an indentation in the top of the radish for a leaf.
Peas
- Make an oblong flat shell for the peas and add three or four tiny balls for the peas.
Strawberries
- Tint the marzipan pinkish-red and form into a roundish cone with a fatter top. Prick the berry with a toothpick to give it seeds. If you’d like dip the toothpick in a bit of brown food coloring to make the “seeds” stand out more.
Marzipan candies can be made ahead of time and stored in an airtight container for a few weeks.
Marzipan candy is a traditional European sweet popular during the holidays. You’ll find it in pastry, confiseries and confectioneries from Eastern Europe to the Netherlands.
Marzipan Candy
Ingredients
- 7 ounces Marzipan
- Gel food coloring
Instructions
- Divide marzipan into portions and using a tiny bit of gel or food coloring tint each portion of dough. Use a very small amount at a time until the correct color is achieved.
- Follow instructions above for each fruit or vegetable.
Cynthia, you guys did a phenomenal job with these little fruits and veggies! Great step by step photos for those who have never done anything like this makes it manageable to everyone.
Wonderful tutorial!
CC
Thanks Christina!
I had it stuck in my head that marzipan was difficult. Wow, was I wrong and have I ever been missing out on the fun! Thanks Cynthia, what an awesome post!
Chris, I remember going to Vienna and looking at all the beautiful marzipan creations in the pastry shop windows. Mine are simple, but my daughter sure enjoyed making them.
I have ALWAYS wanted to do this, I love it! My girls would have loved this too, I wish I’d done it with them when they were little.
There’s still time!
I remember when I was younger I used to LOVE eating those marzipan candies off of cakes and such – I would always ruin them 😉
Haha! I would probably do that too!
OMGosh, these are the cutest things! I love them decorating something on top, but they are so cute, I want to eat them just as they are. And oh yea…keep a few just so I can remember how perfect they are! Pinned.
thank you Kristi! After making them, it is hard to eat them, but we manage!
Cute! Such a fun spring idea
These look like such a fun treat!
I’ve always wanted to try this!
These are so sweet looking!
These are adorable!
I was wondering how you store them, I put mine on a cake and in the fridge… it did not go well.
Hello! Beautiful work, congratulations!
I can make in advance? For months ahead or need to be fresh?
Thank you
Yes, you can totally make them ahead. I don’t know about months in advance, but certainly a week or two for sure! Thank you!