In the past, when George's mother Ethna has sent us a Christmas Cake, we've gone out to buy marzipan which George would then roll out and lay over the cake before frosting it with a cooked hard icing.  George decided this year to make marzipan from scratch.

He had to blanche the almonds (I helped him remove the skins), then ground the almonds, then cooked up the sugar syrup and finally mixed the ground almonds with the sugar syrup.

When it was all done, George stated that he will NEVER do that again.  The marzipan needs to sit in the fridge for a few days before he can put it on the cake.  Meanwhile George has been regularly pouring whiskey (some inexpensive stuff I picked up at the liquor store) over the cake to keep it moist.