Marzipan lamb or almond paste sheep, the recipe of the Sicilian tradition linked to Easter. In Sicily Easter isn’t made only of eggs and Colombe, but also classic cassatas and baked cassatas, aceddu ccu l’ova, cassatelle di Agira, white and delicate almond pastes, and above all martorana fruits and marzipan lambs. In Sicily the little sheep in pasta reale, finely decorated to celebrate Easter, are an elegant, picturesque sweet inspired by the primordial symbol of this religious celebration: the lamb. The Sicilian marzipan lamb, different from the more traditional Favara Easter lamb, is simple, often packaged together with the famous martorana fruit; it is made only of marzipan and, unlike the other, does not contain pistachio paste. Today we’ll make it together and you’ll see that once you find the molds online, our traditional Easter sweet will give you great satisfaction!
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- Difficulty: Medium
- Cost: Expensive
- Rest time: 2 Days
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Portions: 5
- Cooking methods: No-cook
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Easter
Ingredients to make the marzipan lambs
- 5 1/4 cups blanched almond flour
- 2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup glucose syrup
- 5 drops almond extract
- 1/4 cup water
- as needed food coloring
- 1 pinch cornstarch (for the mold)
- 2 drops vanilla extract
Tools
- Bowls
- Mold 200 g lamb plaster mold
- Brushes
Preparation
For this recipe you will need pure powdered sugar without starch; I therefore recommend making it at home with a good blender. I use a Smoothie Maker.
To make the almond paste lamb you could also use the hot method used for the marzipan of cassatelle or minnuzze (minnuzze); it is done without glucose, but I do not recommend it because marzipan tends to dry out and become hard.
This is a batch for 5 lambs of about 200 g each, but you can decide whether to make only lambs or also fruits.
Once you have the powdered sugar, mix it together with the almond flour, add the glucose syrup (it will help keep the marzipan soft) and the flavorings.
And the water. Mix everything and then start working vigorously with your hands so that the almond flour releases its oil and the sugar dissolves, making the mass more workable. Do not add more water; knead until you obtain a plastic, moldable dough.
It’s time to form the lambs using plaster molds, which you can easily find online. Brush the inside of the 3D mold with cornstarch, then fill the two halves with the marzipan, leveling it. Bring the molds together so they match.
Press so that the two halves of the lamb stick to each other and carefully unmold. Remove excess paste with a sharp knife and let dry in the air for at least 24 hours before painting with gel or powder colors diluted with very little water.
If you want to model fruit instead, help yourself with plastic wrap: place the plastic wrap in the mold and fill with marzipan. Unmold and let dry 24 hours before applying a first coat of color.
Apply a light ochre yellow, which will be the base of each little fruit. After this coat, wait 24 hours before proceeding with the final coloring.
After the final coloring, if you want to give a coat of food-grade shellac varnish to make the martorana shiny, wait another 24 hours and let dry for 12 more hours. Decorate the lamb with a red ribbon around the neck and finally our Easter basket is ready to be packaged!
Storage and tips
To store martorana fruits or the lamb, before packaging them in the appropriate cellophane baskets, give them a light spray of food-grade alcohol.
Martorana fruits keep for several months, but I recommend enjoying them within a month so the flavor does not deteriorate.
Decorate the fruits with leaves and stems to make them even more beautiful.
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