Mmmacarons

The elusive macaron beckoned.

I was first introduced to these little French delights (and the highly talented chef Adriano Zumbo) through chocolatesuze.com's blog. Reading food blogs about all these beautiful, interestingly flavoured macarons made me crave them, even though I had never eaten one before. But I also read about the failures... I thought, seriously, how hard could this little innocent-looking-Oreo-type biscuit-y cookie be to make?

Okay, very hard... especially if you are a perfectionist like myself.

After two failed batches in the span of a week, I decided to give it a break and re-evaluate before trying again. Helen from mytartelette is absolutely awesome. I have probably read her Macarons 101 article a thousand times now. And it is thanks to her wisdom (and willingness to share said wisdom) that allowed me to perfect this.

As it was the lovely Claire's 13th birthday yesterday, I decided to make her some almond macarons with bittersweet chocolate ganache. I am so glad she enjoyed them.

Macarons all ready to party

Looking back on my photos of the macarons, I figure I need to work on my consistency. Some were filled with way more ganache than others. Some shells were pale whereas others were lightly browned (that was more the oven's fault, really). I refused to use a piping bag because that's just straight up creating more mess - I already make enough mess in the kitchen as it is (as my hubby Jay tells me)! But overall, they tasted pretty good and I'm happy with how they look.

As I was third time lucky with this batch, I am going to experiment a bit more before posting the recipe, with some tips, just to make sure that I didn't just fluke it this time round. Oh I can't wait.

The colours.. the flavours... the endless possibilities!

Irish Cream

Legless.


By Kylie Banning

This is such a pretty book and the recipes look so delicious. I bought it from the book club at work and some of the pages are already tagged for a special few birthdays in the office. I made one of the cakes for Naomi's birthday last week - Strawberry Cheesecake, which was devine and, as an added bonus, it was quite simple to make.

What I didn't consider when I decided to make these lovely alcoholic desserts for upcoming birthdays, is that alcohol is mighty expensive. Last week I bought Strawberry Liqueur ($24.99) which I guess wasn't too bad a price. But the next recipe I am going to attempt requires three different liqueurs!

So, enter Lee & Soph, with their own alcohol distilling kit at home, who provided me with some Oz Brew Irish Cream and Hazelnut Liqueur.

Irish cream liqueur

I didn't realise how easy these DIY liqueur kits are to use.

"A complete schnapps kit containing pre-blended ingredients that make a true, full-bodied cream liqueur. Just add 500ml of treated spirit or Vodka directly to this satchel. Re-seal and shake well to blend."

So easy! I am already eyeing the kits for making butterscotch schnapps and coconut rum.

I am not much of a drinker (special occasions only ;)) but I can't go past these desserts to get me into the spirit :)