Pumpkin Marzipan

1. 1

   Work the honey with jam (if you have that flavor) into the marzipan paste. Otherwise you can use all honey. Roll this in a bowl of the powdered sugar to incorporate the sugar into the dough. When the dough is no longer sticky, it is ready to begin molding. You may still have powdered sugar left, which you can use in another batch or in frosting.

2. 2

   With your very clean hands mold the dough into pumpkin shapes. Look at real pumpkins when you do this, so you capture some actual realistic irregularities. I create the stem from a small piece of dough that I then add to the body.

3. 3

   Next using toothpicks score some lines into the pumpkin and stem to simulate details.

4. 4

   Set up some saucers to work with a palette of colors from your natural food coloring. Have some plain water ready to modulate the hues. Using small brushes ( I have a set reserved just for food) paint the surface of your pumpkins with your colors. Mix in some shades for added realism: There are some greens in the stem. Notice there are browns and olives alive in the pumpkin orange. I sometimes use a little honey diluted in water to also dip my brushes in mixing color for tiny bite size candies. This is a crude kind of flavored varnish, in a way.

5. 5

   Serve these to your guests when dry. You can package these as party favors in small boxes with some broken shredded wheat underneath, top chocolate frosted pumpkin cupcakes with them, or just serve them upon fresh grape (or mint) leaves on their own. You can use cloves for the stems if you like.

* Per serving · 4 servings · Values may vary.