You may have seen it at Christmastime or even recognized the name from the Nutcracker ballet (there's a whole dance dedicated to marzipan), but do you know what is marzipan and how it's made?

In Germany, marzipan is baked into the buttery fruit and nut bread, Stollen. In France, it is used both as filling and to make the decorations for a traditional Bûche de Noël. In Italy ...

Marzipan can be made with egg yolk for a richer colour or coloured with food colouring and flavoured, then used to make petits fours. It can be also be moulded into the shape of fruits ...

If you aren't into hand-painting and moulding marzipan fruits, may we recommend the Hairy Bikers' Chocolate tart with marzipan balls? Yes, we know it serves 6, but that's three whole days of love!