Christmas Cake Decorating Part 1 – Cashew Marzipan

I’ve never decorated a cake with anything more fancy than butter icing before, so I’m not sure why I’m tempting fate decorating Oscar’s Christmas Cake, but I am!  The first step is the Marzipan.  I’m not a fan of almond marzipan, but while researching options I came across some recipes for cashew marzipan, which seems to be popular in India.   I also watched several videos about how to make marzipan, the most useful being this one from Confection Perfection.  I’ll write a post about decorating the cake a bit later, but I think I did a pretty good, although a bit rough, job for my first attempt.

Cashew Mazipan

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Serves	1
Prep time	30 minutes
Allergy / Intolerance	Amines, Artificial Addititives, Artificial Colours, Glutamates, Preservatives, Salicylates
Suitable for	RPAH Elimination Diet - Low Chemical / Failsafe
Meal type	Dessert
Misc	Freezable, Pre-preparable
Occasion	Birthday Party, Casual Party, Christmas, Formal Party
Region	Indian

Cashew marzipan, an alternative to traditional almond marzipan.

Ingredients

• 500g raw cashews
• 500g pure icing sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 3 egg white

Directions

1.	Using a food processor, grind the cashews to make a fine powder. Stop grinding if the powder starts to become oily.
2.	Put the cashews and icing sugar into a large mixing bowl and mix to combine.
3.	Combine the egg whites and vanilla essence and beat lightly. Make a well in the centre of the cashew mixture and add the egg whites. Mix until the dough starts to come together. If it is not firm enough add a bit more icing sugar.
4.	Pour the dough onto a clean surface and knead until you have a firm smooth dough.
5.	Wrap in cling film and store in the fridge or freezer until ready to use. Can be made 2 days ahead and stored in the fridge, or store in the freezer for longer.

Note

Low Chemical / Failsafe

Makes more than enough marzipan to cover a 20cm cake, depending on how thick you like it.

So my cake is now drying out, although given the temperatures in Melbourne at the moment I only left it out uncovered for 2 days and have now put it into an airtight container in the fridge until I do the Royal Icing part.