Almond paste

One US cup of almond paste weighs between 250 and 320 grams (8.8 to 11.3 ounces), depending on how the cup is filled and which source measured it. That range is the answer; a single number would not be. Every figure behind it is below, with the method each source used.

TL;DR: Almond paste weight per cup varies widely by brand. Solo and Odense converge at 312-320 g/cup on their nutrition labels; King Arthur lists 259 g/cup packed. That is a 20 to 28 percent spread, too wide to publish a single figure honestly, so the range 250 to 320 g per cup is published with low confidence. Weigh from the specific brand you use.

Almond paste is a patisserie ingredient made from ground blanched almonds combined with sugar and a binder (water, glucose syrup, or egg white). It is the base for frangipane fillings, almond macaroons, Italian pignoli cookies, and the interior of many stollens and kringles. Almond paste is not the same as almond butter (pure ground almonds with no sweetener) and is not the same as marzipan (higher sugar-to-almond ratio, softer texture, used for candy modeling and cake covering). This entry covers almond paste specifically. See the pistachio-butter entry for a related distinction between pure nut butter and sweetened patisserie paste.

The data splits into two clear clusters. Producer nutrition labels for the two dominant US retail brands, Solo Foods and Odense, both list serving sizes of 2 tablespoons at 39 to 40 grams. Extrapolated to a US cup (16 tablespoons), that is 312 to 320 grams. These serving weights are legally required by the FDA to be accurate on the panel, so the label figures carry weight. King Arthur's ingredient chart, by contrast, lists almond paste (packed) at 9 1/8 ounces or 259 grams per cup. King Arthur's own DIY almond paste recipe yields 'about 1 1/2 cups (375g),' which computes to roughly 250 grams per cup, corroborating their chart figure. So King Arthur is internally consistent at around 250 to 259 grams per cup.

Both ends of the range are defensible for what they describe. Solo and Odense sell commercial pastes that combine 45 percent almonds with sugar and glucose syrup, producing a dense, sticky, viscous product that packs to 1.32 to 1.35 grams per milliliter. King Arthur's chart likely reflects a lighter preparation more like their DIY recipe, which uses almond flour bound with confectioners' sugar and egg white rather than a cooked glucose syrup base, and which incorporates more air and holds more water proportionally. Both are called 'almond paste' in the market. Almond paste has no FDA identity standard in the United States (unlike marzipan in the European Union, where almond content is regulated), so commercial variance is genuine and unavoidable.

For bakers, this means the volume-to-weight conversion depends entirely on which product is in your pantry. If you are working from a Solo or Odense can or tube, use the label: 40 grams per 2 tablespoons, or 320 grams per cup. If you made your own paste using something close to King Arthur's DIY recipe, expect closer to 250 grams per cup. The 20 percent difference is enough to affect recipe outcome, particularly in almond-forward cookies where paste is the main structural ingredient. When a recipe specifies almond paste by volume without naming a brand, weighing from the container you actually have is the only reliable path.