Golden Apple Subtletie

A friend of mine was  running a tourney on the weekend with a mythological theme. She asked me to make a golden apple to give as the prize for the event.

We decided that fruit cake would make a tasty base for the apple, and I decided that a light fruit cake would be best as it tends to appeal to a wide range of tastes. I planned to try and cover the fruit cake 'apple' with marzipan.

As these things tend to go 'pear-shaped' (no pun intended!) I wanted to make a test apple first.

I decided to experiment with colouring the marzipan first, instead of doing my usual trick of painting the marzipan after moulding.


The pictures below show my 'test run'. I used yellow food colouring kneaded into the marzipan and lightly sprayed with edible gold shimmer paint. I think it came out too yellow.

Check out the big fingerprint in the middle. I was too eager and touched it before it was fully dry!

So for the next and final apple, I left the marzipan plain and sprayed the apple with edible gold paint after the marzipan had dried a bit. It took several sprays. I used one can between the two apples. 

The apple before the leaf was added. I dusted the apple with bronze dusting powder and gold dusting powder.

I used a cutter to shape the leaf, and painted it with green food colouring.

The apple travelled fairly well in my un-airconditioned vehicle, especially considering it was a 33 degree C day.

The apple presented to the winner.