From topping cakes to decorating cupcakes, tiny marzipan ornaments offer bakers a range of creative opportunities for showcasing themes and favorite items. Miniature vegetables, flowers, even animals are crafted from a pieces of soft, pliable, and edible dough.
Bakers short on time and culinary skills may prefer to find simple alternatives to some of the most basic or popular marzipan designs. With a handful of sweet and edible supplies, culinary artists can craft a range of unique miniature ornaments for decorating their creations.
Making Miniature Vegetables
Decorate summer garden cupcakes with miniature vegetables made with glittery sugared gumdrops, saltwater taffy flavors, and a pair of scissors. Because of the range of colors and sizes, gumdrops are perfect for molding and shaping into mini veggies, especially due to the adhesive nature of the sticky "jelly" center of gumdrop candies.
The Steps:
- Use the scissors to cut apart the gumdrops to reach and mold soft centers.
- Create carrots by stretching and rolling orange taffy; or radishes by cutting small slits around an inverted cherry gumdrop.
- Mold and flatten small pieces of green gumdrops to form leaves, pressing them into the adhesive jelly of each "vegetable" using a toothpick to break apart the surface.
- For lettuce, tear apart pieces of mint taffy and squash flat to form leaves; layer them together and press with toothpick to secure in place.
Edible Insects and Flowers
The soft surface and sizes of gumdrops make them an easy choice for crafting mini mushrooms; they can also be molded into shapes like rosebuds or tulips. To create easy flowers with a marzipan-like appearance, use flavored Twizzler sticks or licorice whips.
The Steps:
- Cut Twizzlers into narrows strips with scissors, then secure them in chrysanthemum clusters using flavored icing.
- Craft delicate daisy petals from fruit roll-up sheets cut to shape using a fine-tipped kitchen knife. Secure with a small piece of taffy or icing to form the center.
Create snails using colorful peppermint-striped hard candies (which come in a range of flavors and colors) to form their shells. Mold their bodies using soft gumdrops cut apart or soft saltwater taffy pieces. Craft ladybugs with hard red candies and licorice pieces (use a raisin for the head).
Easy Chocolate Teddy Bears
Create a delectable teddy bear ornament with a thick chocolate candy made with simple ingredients.
The Steps:
- Over a simmering saucepan of water, place a second pan and melt dark or milk chocolate chips. Once the chocolate begins to break down, add heavy cream to form a thick, rich chocolate paste.
- Let cool, then remove a spoonful and roll into a ball, greasing your fingers with a light coating of butter first.
- Form a second ball, smaller one for the head; then seven little ones for the ears, limbs, and muzzle. Add mini eyes and a nose molded from tiny pieces of taffy.
- To create a polar bear, dust the still-warm chocolate with powdered sugar or substitute white chocolate for the milk variety.
Display the edible ornaments atop cupcakes, cakes, and other culinary centerpieces. Finding creative alternatives to traditional marzipan designs may provide a simple or quick alternative for decorating desserts.
Sarah Briggs - For the last two years, I have designed primitive dolls and folk art sculptures (such as Edwin Drood and the Ghost of Marley) for Cordwood ...
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