Home-made marzipan

For a delicious alternative to shop-bought marzipan, the following recipe will yield the 850g required for the Simnel cake.

380g icing sugar, plus extra for dusting 320g ground almonds 3 eggs 2 tsp almond essence

To make the marzipan, mix together the icing sugar with the ground almonds and beat in the eggs and almond essence. Mix until firm, then dust a surface with icing sugar and knead until smooth. Wrap in cling film and chill for 30 mins.