Marzipan

Marzipan, or marchpane, to give it its English period name, is a tasty fudge-like food that is made from almonds.

Typically made using ground almond meal, sugar and egg whites, it molds and sculpts very easily and thus is often used in the creations of subtleties. It also takes food dyes and paint well. Ground almond meal is quite expensive if you buy it from a supermarket, but in Australia it only costs around $9 per kilogram from the market or a place like Hindustan Supermarket, Greens Rd, Dandenong in Melbourne (which is THE place to buy cheap spices, including many hard to get ones).

Marzipan tastes very good when dipped in chocolate (although that isn't very period).

History of Marzipan

One rather fanciful tale of marzipan's history has it that during the siege of Toledo, the food supplies were running low. So, the inhabitants mixed together the only foods left, almonds and eggs, added some water, and voila! Marzipan was born. Another version of the story involves a great famine across Italy, or Germany...

It's more likely that marzipan is of Arabic origin, and was brought to Europe in the 13th century.