MARZIPAN PUMPKINS

"Harvest can come home - with your own bite-size pumpkin patch, using easy-to-make marzipan shapes. Your little pumpkins will look decorative whether lined along window sills, offered on a candy tray or grouped as colorful table settings, for Halloween or later. If you want to be formal, use them as place-card holders for dinner guests."

1 tube yellow food coloring
1 tube red food coloring
1 (7-ounce) package marzipan or almond paste
A few toothpicks
A few drops vegetable oil
A few stalks of mint or nontoxic plants, washed

Mix food coloring, using about 1 part red to 2 parts yellow. Knead a small amount into marzipan, using enough to get a pumpkin color you like.

Take a small piece of tinted marzipan and form a ball. With little finger, make a small indentation in top. Dip a toothpick in oil. Starting at ball's top, press side of toothpick in gently from end to end to make vertical "creases."

From Andre Prost Inc., Odense Almond Paste.
Source: Houston Chronicle