Love your answer. I had not seen the marzipan babies.

Ooh, love marzipan. Depending on your definition of "quick and easy" :), you could roll them in balls and either dunk them in or drizzle them with chocolate and give away as Christmas gifts. I make Christmas candy by wrapping maraschino cherries in marzipan and dunking in chocolate. It makes a great cake covering under fondant; you could bake cupcakes, cut rounds of marzipan, and place them on top of the cupcakes before frosting.

But here are two recipes that sound relatively quicker and easier, haha:

http://www.foodchannel.com/recipes/recipe/plum-cobbler-with-marzipan-biscuit-topping/

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/stollen

And there's always the good ol' freaky marzipan babies: http://www.worldamazingrecords.com/2006/04/amazing-photo-of-marzipan-babies.html Amazing artistry, but really, who's eating those? Really?

By the way I love your draniki recipe. I went foraging for wild mushrooms in Belarus this fall during a business trip. I came back with a ton of ancient recipes from Belarus, but none are translated!

Yes, you can also use natural dyes like beet or pomegranate. It is so easy to use a paint brush with food coloring, flavored or plain. So therapeutic, too. I just set out my models and paint away. If you lived nearby I would offer to do a huge batch for you, no joke! I love doing these.

Oh I see the recipe now cool ... :)

Ha ha I know ... my mom gave it to me. I usually use it for a German cake -- made in layers under the broiler.. German Tree Cake.... anyway, I like the idea of making the sculptures. Do you just use a paintbrush and food coloring to color them?

Two pounds??!! Wow, you could sculpt a pig out of that. I must admit that I don't use it often but I do enjoy its flavor in small bites.

Lucky you! I would make a cornucopia of fruits and vegetables for topping cakes or using as placecards as Threemealsaday suggested. Here are some of my latest images:
http://www.food52.com/recipes/7098_pumpkin_marzipan