Almond Paste Rose

Ingredients for Almond Paste Rose :

Form a sausage with the coloured almond paste of your choice.
Cut in 4 to 5 mm thick slices.
Prepare an almond paste base. You will use it to stick the layers with each other.
Flour the counter with cornstarch and take the first slice of almond paste.
Crush it with your thumb to make it flat. It will be the first petal.
With a cornstarched metal spatula, flatten the rim of this first petal.
Hold firmly the tip of the spatula with the left hand and move back and forth with your right hand to flatten the rim.
Remove at once by quickly passing the spatula under the petal.
Position the first petal on the base. You just made the core of the rose.
Repeat the previous operation to create more petals.
Put them around the core, intercalating the petals between one another.
Repeat with 3 petals. And then with 4, and so on.
This way there will be an increasing number of layers with an increasing number of petals. When the rose starts to take shape, squeeze the bottom with your fingers to make it stick well together.
Go on like this until you obtain a fair sized rose.
When the rose is finished, cut the bottom with a knife. Twist the petals' rim to give them a natural shape.
With a green almond paste, you can also prepare leaves, marking the veins with the back of a knife.