Still got it!

It has now been 4 and a half months since I last made Macarons and I decided that today would be the perfect opportunity to get back into it and make some again. I made something that I already knew and was comfortable with - Lemon - and just hoped that they turned out well and...  THEY DID! This was also the second chance I have had to cook since I returned from Italy just a few weeks ago. I also got to cook a pumpkin and pea risotto using home grown pumpkin. I got to eat a lot of good food whilst in Italy but I'm glad to be home and ready to cook more food of my own.

Bits, Bobs and Pies

The world of cooking has been quite good to me lately and I have been in the kitchen every weekend this month. I've been working on my pies, thanks to some not so subtle prompts from my Dad. I started with an apple pie (and had a little fun with the top), then I also made a lemon meringue pie - the feedback on both was good and I was glad I didn't disappoint my critics.

I also decided to 'try' to temper some chocolate - it wasn't until afterwards that I realised supermarket chocolate is pre-tempered and I actually un-tempered the chocolate instead. None the less, it didn't stop me from making lots of  cool chocolate decorations. I also spent a day making choux pastry - eclairs and mini croquembouches. 2 weekends ago, I spent several hours working on fondant roses and I'm certainly glad the hard work paid off.

Now I've got the experience to put my birthday cake together this weekend...

Update

I thought now would be a good time to add a blog update as yesterday I spent the day making a birthday cake for my sister's birthday today. I found a photo to use as inspiration on pintrest and this is what I came up with...

I have also been busy since my last post, making an oreo cheesecake and gingerbread house.

It's nearly Christmas...

Over the last 3 days I have dedicated my time to making a lot of macarons for Christmas. The first were red and green marshmallow macarons and the second was a half-half batch (salted caramel and strawberry) at special request. I am still planning on making some more closer to Christmas. Also I was very excited to use my new camera to finally take some really good quality photos of the finished macarons so I have put some photos below. 

Hey Honey...

This weekend I decided to try some new things. I had been wanting to try and make honeycomb after I saw them doing it on the Great British Bake-off and when I finally got around to trying it, I thought what better to do with it than make macarons. Chocolate honeycomb was the flavour this time and I decided I would even create a visual diary of how I make the macarons (I did miss a few steps but the majority are below and unfortunately I didn't get to capture the honeycomb in pictures so I will have to make it again some other time).

Making the Macarons

heating the sugar syrup and colouring

 egg whites forming soft peaks

 adding the finished sugar syrup straight into the egg whites

 sifting the almond meal and icing sugar together

 adding more egg whites to form an almond paste

combining the finished meringue and almond paste to create the mixture ready for piping

 

 piping the shells

 resting to form a skin before cooking

 

 rising to form 'feet'

 finished shells ready for filling

 homemade honeycomb

basic chocolate ganache

crushed honeycomb ready to be mixed through

finished honeycomb ganache

 drizzled chocolate for decoration on finished macarons

THE FINISHED PRODUCT

Snow White

Last weekend, I made some marshmallow macarons. Half to sell and half for my friends. I decided to put a twist on how I normally do them and use my new titanium dioxide powder at the same time.

Usually I make pink shells with a pink filling but this time they were white shells and pink filling. The titanium dioxide powder works as a white pigment in cooking. Along the way I was hesitant about wether it would work or not but it did and I was left with what I was hoping for.

It's Official

Last week I was asked if I would be able to bake some chocolate orange macarons for the year 12 hospitality students as decoration for the dessert they were making for their restaurant. They only needed half a batch so I decided to sell the rest through my Aunty Sarah at her work. I was very happy with the colour I got in the shells and they have improved a lot since my first try all those many months ago.