Bird nests - Easter Calendar 2014

Today it is Maundy Thursday (Skærtorsdag), which is a public holiday here in Denmark and starting off the Danish Easter vacation with 5 days off from work. And at the same time it is the start for my little  Easter Calendar 2014, where I every Easter day will be sharing a new recipe having a relation to Easter of some kind.

We will start off with a new thing, which is marzipan cake called fuglereder a la Odense Marcipan (bird nests), which is very fitting with busy birds outside finding a  new or old mate to court with, building a nest to be filled with eggs.

I must admit, that I got a little anoided, when I noticed that the packaging of baking stable marzipan (being a part of my goodie from Odense Marcipan) only contained 300 g instead of the 500 g baking stable marzipan stated in the recipe !!!! So I went for a combination of baking stable marzipan and tradtional marzipan with 63% almonds. And I got not noticed any defects in these cakes !!!


Fuglereder (bird nests) a la Odense Marcipan: - 15-20 smaller cakes

• 300 g baking stable marzipan
• 200 g tradtional marzipan
• 200 g sugar
• 1 egg white - raw or pasteurised
• 20 g hazelnuts - finely chopped 
• blood orange jam or plain orange jam

1. Heat up the (conventional) oven to 210'C.
2. Knead the marzipan together with sugar and egg white in a mixing bowl. I use my hand for this purpose.
3. Form the marzipan into a roll, which is divided into 15-20 pieces of equal size.
4. Roll the marzipan into sphere, which is rolled in finely chopped hazelnuts.
5. Place the marzipan sphere on a baking tray covered with baking paper.
6. Make a hole in the marzipan sphere using a fingre.
7. Bake the marzipan cakes in the upper part of the oven at 210'C for 10 minutes.
8. Cool down the marzipan cakes.
9. Before serving the marzipan cakes fill the hole with blood orange jam or plain orange jam.