I live in the Netherlands and went to a cake store this weekend that sold Wilton products but rather than colored fondant (I want primary colors so thought pre-dyed would be the best route for me, as a beginner) the had marzipan in the primary colors. When I asked if they carried the colored fondant they said no, everybody uses marzipan. They only had black and white fondant (but the supplies to dye it myself, which I was trying to avoid doing).

Can you forsee any problems with using marzipan over fondant? I have zero experience with marzipan, besides eating it every now and then but from what I remember, I always thought marzipan was a big grittier, not as smooth and was sweeter than what I would get with fondant, but maybe the Dutch know something I don't?

are you sure it marzipan (almond paste)?? Maybe they mixed up marzipan and sugarpaste. AFAIK fondant is called sugarpaste in Europe, so maybe the shop assistant was confused when you asked for fondant.

the type of marzipan I know is grittier than sugarpaste and also dont colour as well,its a creamy pale yellow paste to begin with, so a test run might be the safest way to go.
HTH

In the book Cakewalk by Margaret Braun she uses either fondant or marzipan interchangeably. I could not see a difference in the photos in the book. I also know that if you can get your hands on any books from the UK that a lot of them show putting a layer of marzipan over the cake like fondant and then covering it with Royal Icing. Again I saw no difference between the marzipan and fondant in the photos.

HTH

Marzipan is usually much more expensive than rolled fondant.

It often somewhat shiny/oily looking.

It's used over fruit cakes to even out the surface for covering with sugarpaste (rolled fondant) or royal icing (often "softened" a bit by adding glycerine).

It's generally not used to cover sponge cakes because of the weight that it adds to the cake and it's not an expected "taste" with that type of cake. Buttercream or ganache are the more traditional icings for a sponge that will be fondant covered.

Colette Peters mixes marzipan with fondant--she calls it Marzifon--for certain applications.

Here in the US, it's more commonly used for modeling small figures or miniature fruits.

Sometimes you have to work with what you can get easily. Maybe mixing some of the white ready to roll fondant/sugarpaste with the pre-colored marzipan would give you what you're looking for.

HTH
Rae

Yes, it seems the dutch people like marzipan more than fondant. That's also because, the Dutch eat marzipan for hundreds of years when it 'Sinterklaasfeest'
Hollandy, my advise to you is to look at taart.jouwpagina.nl
thjere are several links to a lot of Dutch webshop, and they do sell pre-dyed fondant


Cakechick: marzipan exist is several mixtures. some have 1 part or of almonds and 1 or 2 parts of sugar. De ready to roll marzipan has 1 part of almonds and 3 of sugar. You can check my website or my photo's on CC, with most of the cakes, only the decoration is fondant, all the rest is marzipan

Dank je! **blosende smiley**