Tutorial: What is the Difference Between Fondant and Marzipan?

Here in Germany, many people prefer marzipan over fondant. But I discovered in other parts of the world, many people have never even heard of marzipan. So, I thought I'd show a quick comparison in method and usage.

First of all, what is fondant? Fondant is also called sugar paste and is made primarily of different forms of sugar until they form a soft, play-dough-like consistency that can be formed and draped over cakes to make a smooth surface. It is often used for decorating cakes and holds color very well as its natural color is very close to true white. It doesn't have a strong flavor and is mainly known for being sweet without adding flavor to the cake.

Marzipan, on the other hand, while very sweet in its own right, is based on ground almonds. This gives it a distinctive, nutty flavor that many people prefer over fondant. Due to the almond base, however, marizipan's natural color is off-white or cream colored. It is very difficult to obtain true white with it. Marzipan tends to be stickier than most fondants, which can present a challenge when modelling as well.

As far as rolling out is concerned, they both roll out well, but you have to employ different methods. Fondant has to be kneaded before rolling, as it can create an outer crust if left exposed to the air too long. Fondant must be kneaded to get all the folds and lines to one place, and generally, if you have any irregularities, they can be cured or hidden by kneading before you begin rolling out. If you leave a fold in the fondant, it will still be there after rolling out. With marzipan, this is not the case. You can see tiny flecks in the marzipan that are the tiny almond pieces. You can knead marzipan as long as you want and it will still have folds and lines. What you have to do with marzipan, is just roll it out. The lines will disappear as you roll, as it sticks to itself very well. The edges, however, will have natural breaks in it that must be trimmed off, if not desired.

I made three different kinds of things to compare marzipan with fondant. First, I modeled a simple bird out of both materials. Fondant (above left) and marzipan (above right) are both soft and pliable. Marzipan's inherent stickiness made it a bit more challenging, but both worked about equally as well. I think these birds are adorable. With general figures with few details, both work just as well.

Then I modeled something a bit more detailed. Here you can see a difference. The grains of almonds in the marzipan become visible as you roll the edges of a detailed figure very thin. This will affect the edges of your detailed figure, like these roses. Marzipan is left, fondant is right. As you can see, the fondant rose wins hands down. The edges of the rose petals are perfectly smooth on the fondant rose, and slightly textured on the marzipan rose.

I also cut out letters from both materials. The only difference I found here is that while it is sometimes necessary to clean up the edges of fondant letters, with marzipan it wasn't really possible. The material is just too sticky. Hence, the fondant letters were also slightly cleaner. But it worked, so I would call it a draw on this point.

 In general, there are several things I would do with marzipan. You can cover a cake with marzipan just as well as with fondant. Although, marzipan causes tiny cracks at the edges, that only occur with dry fondant. But if you strongly prefer the taste of marzipan, then you can absolutely use it to cover cakes, add lettering to cakes and simple decorations.

I would only say that the detailed decorations need to be made with fondant unless you want the thin edges to be ragged. Just be aware that marzipan will not be pure white. Otherwise, marzipan makes lovely cakes.

For example, this cake was covered in marzipan, but the fine decorations were made with fondant.

I hope this was helpful information for you and helps you to make the right decision for your project on which material would be better.

Watch us explain these differences on our YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/NMMd2gvTmpo
Schaut zu wie wir die Unterschiede auf YouTube erklären hier: https://youtu.be/MQukGvfF_IY