A Valentine Candy Recipe or Two

Surprise your loved one with our Valentine Candy Recipe. With love in the air you will want to show you care, and what better way than with homemade valentine candy? Let's start with marzipan fruits, one of those easy candy recipes that doesn't need any cooking.

Marzipan Fruits or Hearts

Did you know that almonds are considered to be an aphrodisiac? Ideal for a Valentine treat wouldn't you say?

Of course this almond candy recipe does not have to be made in the shape of fruit! You could create hearts or flowers for example. Read on for some more ideas after the recipe.

You could cheat and buy ready made marzipan or almond paste, but why not try making it yourself? It isn't difficult at all.

Ingredients for your first valentine candy recipe

2 cups (8oz or 200g) ground almonds
1 cup (8oz or 200g) caster sugar (superfine sugar)
1.5 cups (8oz or 200g) icing sugar (confectioners sugar)
2 eggs
a few drops of almond essence
food colorings of choice

Method

Sift the sugars into a bowl to remove any lumps. Add the ground almonds and mix together.

Break the eggs into a bowl, beat them together, and then add to the mixture with the almond essence. Mix it all together well, until it forms a ball. Don't be too heavy handed here!

Turn out onto a surface sprinkled with icing sugar and knead the marzipan until it is smooth. You can refrigerate it at this stage or carry on and start the creative part.

Coloring and moulding your candies

Now comes the fun part - coloring it! Divide up your marzipan until you have as many pieces as you wish to have colors.

Please note that you only need a few drops of food coloring! If your marzipan ends up darker than you desired you can use a little extra icing sugar to "soak it up" and lighten it.

Knead the color into the marzipan until it is even, then shape as desired. You can get really corny here...

• how about apples to show that your loved one is the "apple of your eye"?

• Now don't laugh, but you could make tomatoes (which are known as love apples).

• Hearts, of course, are an obvious choice, maybe decorated with tiny flowers

• How about a bunch of red roses?

• A pear to show that you are a couple (I did warn you my ideas would be corny!)

If your modelling skills are not the best, you can still achieve great results by using cutters such as this Flowers and Fruits Cutter Set or this set of 6 heart cookie cutters.

Variations on this valentine candy recipe

... could be to add flavorings in addition to the coloring, or to dip the finished candies in melted chocolate and then sweetheart sprinkles to make them extra special.