Marchpane
Marchpane is a traditional Elizabethan recipe for a very stiff almond paste or marzipan that is shaped and moulded into edible table centrepieces. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Elizabethan version of: Marchpane.
prep time
20 minutes
cook time
30 minutes
Total Time:
50 minutes
Serves:
6–8
Rating: 
Tags : Baking RecipesCake RecipesBritish Recipes
Original Recipe
To Make a Marchpane (from Robert May
The Accomplisht Cook
Take two pound of almonds blanched and beaten in a stone mortar, till they begin to come to a fine paste, then take a pound of sifted sugar put it in the mortar with the almonds, and make it into a perfect paste, putting to it now and then in the beating of it a spoonfull of rose-water to keep it from oyling; when you have beaten it to a puff-paste, drive it out as big as a charger, and set an edge about it as you do a quodling tart, and the bottom of wafers under it, thus bake it in an oven or baking-pan; when you see it white, and hard, and dry, take it out, and ice it with rosewater and suger, being made as thick as butter for fritters, so spread it on with a wing feather, and put it into the oven again; when you see it rise high, then take it out and garnish it with come pretty conceits made of the same stuff.
Marchpane is one of
the classic Elizabethan recipes. Essentially it's a stiff form of marzipan (made from ground almonds) that can be moulded into very complex shapes and was often used to generate highly complex and ornate (but edible) centrepieces for a table setting. Two of the great examples of such marchpane models were the model of St Paul's Cathedral given to Elizabeth I by her surveyor of the works and the chessboard presented to her by her master cook.
Modern Redaction
Method:
Place the ground almonds in a pestle and mortar and grind them until they form an uniform paste. Add a tablespoon of rose water to this and mix in. Now add the sugar a little at a time using the pestle or a wooden spoon to mix into the almond paste. When about half the sugar has been added mix in the remaining rose water and start adding the remainder of the sugar, mixing all the while (be careful not to mix to vigourously though as, despite the addition of rosewater the mixture has a tendency to become oily. When you have created your marchpane cover a large surface with caster sugar, tip the marchpane onto this and roll out to about 7mm deep. Cut this into large squares (about 10cm a side). Once you have your squares line the base of a 20cm loose-bottomed cake tin with the rice papers and arrange the squares you've just cut in a fan-like pattern around the inside of the tin so that the entire base is covered. Use any remaining marchpane to cover holes then smooth the whole thing down with the back of a spatula. Remove the marchpane from the tin and slide onto a greased baking tray. If you want you can embed little coloured comfits in the top of the marchpane to create patterns at this stage. Once done, mix together the ingredients of your glaze and brush this over the top of the marchpane.
Bake in an oven pre-heated to 170°C (325°F/Gas Mark 3) for about 30 minutes until the marchpane becomes quite firm. Decorate with candied peel and serve.
Once you have created a basic marchpane you can be a lot more adventurous. If you have a sculptural bent try modelling the marchpane into weird and wonderful shapes before baking. Even if you're not particularly artistic why not make three different marchpanes using different food colourings. You can then cut patterns in these and place them together to create a colourful shape before baking.