Pate d'amande roses

One of the things I learned back at Ferrandi, which has proved to be very useful is making Pate d'amande roses. Pate d'amande, also known as marzipan or almond paste, is the culinary version of Play-Doh. You can dye it, mold it, roll it and shape it. Though unlike Play-Doh, almond paste actually tastes good.

During my CAP exams, we had to make an entremet (layered cake) with a Valentine's Day theme. So of course I whipped out some almond paste roses and cut out some almond paste hearts. The great thing about working with a really malleable medium (unlike chocolate), you can always redo or fix an error, or just smash up everything into a ball and start over. It really isn't that difficult.

To make almond paste roses you will need: almond paste, food coloring (if the paste isn't already colored), a small knife, a spoon, a flat surface, and plastic wrap. In my example, I'm using pink paste for the roses and green almond paste for the leaves, as its generally sold in a package with pink, green, and uncolored paste. If your paste isn't colored, add food coloring and knead the paste until the coloring is even.

Start of by rolling a small piece of paste until it resembles a pinky finger with a base. Make sure that the top part is a bit tapered. After looking at my pictures another stagiaire from work commented on the picture looking pornographic, but then again I doubt he's ever made pate d'amande roses in his life... so whatever.

Next roll out nine balls of paste. I generally make varying sizes. Also, I stick to odd numbers when it comes to petal count, as odd numbers are more visually appealing.

Place your plastic wrap over the balls of paste. Using the palm of your hand, or the back of a small spoon, gently smooth out each ball, with the center of the circle being a little more thick than the edges.

Now for the assembly. You can use your knife to gently scrape the petals from your flat surface. Start by wrapping the smallest petal around the base. Add the next petal, with the center of the petal aligned with edge of the last petal. Continue adding petals around your rose base until you have added all nine petals.

Hopefully your rose will look something like (or better than) this.

Next form leaves by rolling the green almonde paste.You can form a ball of paste into little tapered batons that have the general shape of a leaf. Using the edge of the spoon (or even a skewer/fondant tool) score lines into the leaves, flattening as you go.

Once you have assembled all of your roses and leaves, you can use them to decorate cakes, cupcakes, or even just eat them! I used mine to garnish a fraisier. See? Pate d'amande roses look impressive, and aren't that difficult!