marchpane

MARCHPANE TART INGREDIENTS 350g ground almonds 3tbsp rose water 175g icing sugar 4 wafers of rice paper For the glaze: Grated rind of 1/2 lemon 1tbsp rosewater, 1tbsp icing sugar 1tbsp rice flour Candied peel for decoration METHOD Place the ground almonds in a food processor and process until it forms a smooth paste.

The marchpane is now ready to be moulded or rolled into decorative shapes.

Once moulded into shapes it can be baked in a preheated oven (170degC) for 30 minutes until the marchpane becomes quite firm and once cooled it can be decorated.

A simple marchpane tart can be created by taking a blind baked pastry tart case and filling it with the prepared (unbaked) marchpane, a drizzle of honey and a scattering of almond slithers and baking at 170degC for 30 minutes or until golden.

She loved sweet things and her greedy eyes would have spotted the marchpane chessboard with its squares in white and gold leaf presented by the royal cook who always knew at Christmas which side his bread was buttered.

It is nice to imagine that the Queen might have invited Shakespeare towards midnight to taste a slice of marchpane interrupting him with a messenger as he worked with the players at the end of the Great Hall in last minute rehearsals.

"The Queen - marchpane slices - now, not tomorrow!" said the sweating messenger, disappearing immediately into the throng.