AVIES HOME MADE CHRISTMAS

STUFFED DATES AND MARZIPAN FRUITS


I love those gorgeous little marzipan fruits on sale at this time of the year,what I can never understand is why they are so very expensive, after all they are just snippety bits of marzipan painted with food colouring . I often use these little delights to decorate cakes at Christmas , it takes very little time or skill and the fruits look so pretty,they make a good gift too.

1 small block of marzipan

food colourings, red,yellow, and green

a few cloves

Decide what fruit you want to make and break or cut the marzipan in to pieces, I always think that oranges,lemons and limes look good at this time of year and perhaps apples and pears.

Take a small piece of marzipan and roll it into a ball,then shape into an orange each fruit should be at least an inch high. Mix a little red food colouring with some yellow and mix until you get a smooth orange colour then paint the fruit.

Using the rest of the marzipan make into various fruit shapes, round for oranges .and apples,oval for lemons and of course pears speak for them selves.

Place the fruits on a sheet of baking paper to dry for several hours or until the next day.

Take the whole cloves and remove the star shaped piece from one end,then separate the small ball from the star. For the oranges and lemons push the star shape into one end of each fruit to form the calyx. For the apples and pears push the stalk of the clove into the top of each fruit and a star shaped piece into the bottom.

Use the fruits to decorate a cake or place in little paper cases and serve with dessert, they also make a lovely gift prettily boxed.

Now for the left over marzipan, all you will need is the snippets left over from decorating your cake and a box of whole dates.

Remove the stone from each of the dates and form the marzipan into stone shaped pieces. Insert the marzipan stones into the dates as neatly as possible, Store until needed in an airtight tin. If you have enough marzipan left make a few simple leaf shapes which when painted will form a pretty border for the dates when they are served. Dust with a little ground almond as iot makes the dates less sticky when eating.