Squeek-who…
What family home is complete without one of those adorable rubber-duckys? Such a common icon of childhood, the little duck is squeezed, squeaks, and your baby squeaks with joy at the sound.
To this day, whenever I look at one of those cute little ducks, I think of how my grandmother could draw them and cut them out. She adorned greeting cards covers with them, quilt patterned with them, and yes, she made them out of marzipan added them on top of childhood cakes!
There is just something about having a cute little marzipan animal on top of a cake that melts a person’s heart. Cake decorating is not only fun and a means of creating great memories for and with kids–it is an exercise of showing a loved one how much you care, and that you are willing to go the extra mile for him or her.
Besides, marzipan is absolutely delicious!
What you will need to make a marzipan duck:
Marzipan
Food coloring: orange, yellow, and brown
A work surface
Waxed paper
For the first step, make sure you have marzipan and food coloring. You will need: yellow, orange, plain, and brown marzipan.
For the body, use yellow marzipan and form into a teardrop shape. Turn the tail upward toward the sky.
For the head, roll yellow dough into a ball and place on top of the body. Make sure your marzipan has been chilled so that it can endure the weight of pieces added on…
For the beak, use orange marzipan and form a rectangle that is thicker on one side than the other. Then, attach the thick side to the face of the marzipan duck so that his beak points outward.
Roll out yellow dough and use a star shaped cookie cutter. Cut out two points of the star, and make sure the cut end is rounded. Do this twice, and attach as wings to the side of the bird.
Using plain marzipan, make two flat circles and apply as eyes above beak. Make two smaller circles out of brown marzipan and add as pupils to the bird’s eyes. For a friendly, cartoon-ish look, direct the attention of the pupils toward the beak instead of directly ahead.
These ducks are also easy for kids to make. Get them involved! They will have fun making and eating these adorable little ducks. Your kids can give them as gifts–or–your family can use them to celebrate the welcome of a new family member!