Happy Queen’s Birthday!
I love 3 day weekends.
Although a 4 day weekend would be even better… Not that I’m complaining.
In celebration of the Queen’s birthday (Well not really. Regardless of her birthday, I still would have gone to get them) I decided to FINALLY try out the J’aime les macarons from Dizengoff Cafe in Ponsonby. My friend Mel had told me they were amazing and much better than the Ma Cherie ones that seem to be stocked everywhere else in Auckland.
Boy was she right. They were AMAZING!
Sour cherry and pistachio macaron (below)
This was really great! The flavours were fantastic and the filling was super creamy with little bits of cherry and pistachio in it. YUM!
Coconut macaron (below)
I’m not usually a coconut fan but this was really good, I’d definitely get it again! The toasted coconut on the top really made the entire macaron.
Blackcurrant and chocolate macaron (below)
I don’t even know what to say about this one, words cannot describe how AMAZING it was. With the added surprise of the blackcurrant jam / sauce / stuff in the middle with the chocolate ganache, it’s really giving the blueberry cheesecake macaron I had in Melbourne a run for my favourite macaron.
Vanilla macaron (below left)
If you’re a fan of vanilla, then this is the macaron for you. The vanilla flavour was perfection.
Rose macaron (below top)
This was the only one that had any downside to it and that’s just because I realised whilst eating it that I really don’t like rose flavour. Just not my thing. Otherwise the textures were still spot on, so if you like rose flavour you should try this one. It was definitely better than the rose one I had in Melbourne.
Chocolate and caramel macaron (below bottom)
Caramel and chocolate work so well together. This was yummy as! Although it was a little sickening (especially after I had eaten 5 macarons in the few hours before it – bad idea).
So if you’re on the hunt for a really good macaron, look no further. There are a few stores you can get them from around the country, or you can order them direct from Christchurch and they will courier them to you. Although they are more expensive than the Ma Cherie ones, they are far more superior in flavour, texture and creative combinations.
Will definitely be buying these every time I visit Ponsonby!
I’m gonna get faaaaaat.
Something blue.
Back in March I posted some baking I did for my friend Aish’s 22nd birthday party (passionfruit cupcakes) and mentioned that I also made another attempt at macarons that didn’t work out quite right. Well here they are in all of their failed glory.
They actually don’t look THAT bad. And they didn’t taste THAT bad either. I just wasn’t happy with them. They were a little dryer than my previous ones and their feet didn’t stay puffed up. They looked perfect when I grabbed them out of the oven and as soon as they were out the just collapsed back down.
They also didn’t keep their colour well. The insides of them were still the baby blue colour I had made the mixture but the shell went pale and browned. Booooooo.
I’m going to post the recipe for these ones anyway cause I think it might have been that my oven was slightly too hot for them, and maybe I over mixed them a little? I’m not sure. EIther way, the recipe might still be good so I will give it another shot some time.
Basic Macarons
From the book Macarons by Annie Rigg
200g icing sugar
100g ground almonds
120-125g egg whites
a pinch of salt
40g caster sugar
Mix icing sugar and ground almonds together thoroughly.
Beat egg whites and salt together with an electric mixer until they hold a stiff peak.
Continue to beat whilst adding the caster sugar a spoonful at a time. Mix well to ensure that the sugar is thoroughly incorporated. The mixture should become thick, white and glossy.
Add any food colouring you want in now. Mix till evenly blended.
Fold the icing sugar and almond mixture into the egg whites until thoroughly combined (this could take a few minutes).
Fill piping bag with mixture and pipe evenly sided rounds – about 5cm width – onto baking sheets.
Tap bottom of baking sheets sharply once to expel any large air bubbles.
Leave these for about 30-60 minutes to ‘set’.
Preheat oven to 170 C.
Bake macarons for 10 minutes.
Leave them to cool on a the baking sheet.
In our hurry to get to the party, I asked Carly to make some chocolate ganache which didn’t work out so that’s why they never made it to the party. I ended up grabbing some Betty Crocker Chocolate Frosting from the supermarket and filling the macarons with that later on. It was a little too sweet for my liking but they looked alright!
I think next time I make macarons I will try chocolate ones. I also really need to work on my ganache making skills… Practice makes perfect!
I do love to shop.
I expected to buy A LOT while I was away in Melbourne, Australia. Mainly because I love to shop and buy things all the time. However, this year, I just didn’t really find much to buy. I didn’t buy a single item of clothing, which is shocking for me!
The thing I spent the most amount of money on was probably macarons.
I purchased a total of 26 macarons in 5 days.
I may have a problem…
Cacao: Salty caramel, strawberries and cream, raspberry and violet/blackcurrant.
Not a fan of salty caramel at all. Just not my thing. Violet/blackcurrent was fantastic. The others were great too!
Cacao: Tangy lemon, short mac (coffee), dark chocolate and passionfruit (ate it before I took the photo haha)
The short mac one was the best out of these ones. The other two were great too. Not sure that I’m a fan of chocolate ganache in passionfruit macarons though. I’ve seen them paired up heaps and I just find the chocolate too overpowering.
Melbourne Markets: Blueberry cheesecake (x2), dark chocolate, vanilla, chartreuse, expresso, tiramisu and strawberry or raspberry
I don’t remember what the actual store was called that I got these from but they are in the deli hall if anyone is going there.
On the left is the chartreuse macaron which was really intense! Quite strong. If you’re a chartreuse fan I’m sure you would love it but it was a bit too much for me and I only ended up eating half of it. It looked really pretty though! One of the most interesting looking ones I saw the whole trip.
On the right is the blueberry cheesecake macaron and I think it might have been my favourite of the trip. The filling was cheesecake and it was absolutely fantastic. The second one was for Carly (who also had the vanilla one).
Lindt Cafe: Strawberry, roselli, champagne, dark chocolate, caramel and passionfruit
These were all pretty good although I had higher expectations from what I had heard about them.
I also bought 4 from Cafe Vue in the Melbourne International Airport before we left for home, which were pretty good. They were the most expensive ones I bought and they were smaller than the others, but the flavours were good. I had the pistachio, passionfruit, orange and vanilla.
I think overall, I would say that the ones from Cacao were the best. They should be since they won the Best Macaron in Melbourne in 2010.
Apart from the macaron purchases, the only other things I managed to buy where these:
An adorable knitted owl hot water bottle
A heart shaped ice cube tray from Ikea
Oddly shaped cupcake cases from Ikea
BYS nail polishes (the black with glitter in it on the left is for my best friend Brit) – I sort of regret not buying more of these. They were so cheap and this one shop seemed to have the entire range!
So that really sums up the non-Soundwave part of my trip. I didn’t really get any good photos of any of the bands/shows but I loved every single band I saw and managed to see some of my favourites twice because I saw them at the festival and at their sideshows. Lucky me!
Macarons: Attempt Two!
After my epic fail of a first attempt at macarons, I was determined to get it right. I knew what I had done wrong previously, so I just had to be patient and follow the recipe properly.
I decided to use a different recipe this time, since the last one I used said to only let them sit for 15 minutes, which I think is just not enough time. I found this recipe for ‘the perfect macaron’ on The Pink Whisk site and decided to roll with it.
I followed the recipe down to a tee. And they turned out perfect!
You should have seen Carly and I sit right next to the oven watching them bake. :’D We were so excited!
Due to my love of lemon, I decided to fill them with some sweet lemon curd. Since the curd has quite a strong flavour, I thought it best to leave the macaron shells as just the basic plain flavour and colour them with some Wilton Golden Yellow.
It was fairly late at night when I made these and I was too lazy to make my own lemon curd up so I used the Barkers Lemon Curd that I had in the fridge to fill them. SO YUM!
These were my first successful attempt at making my own macarons; Lemon Curd Macarons. I cannot wait to try out some new flavours, especially now that I have my new Macaron recipe book that Aishia got me for my birthday!
Hope you all like them!
Macarons: Attempt One.
My macaron obsession has gotten a little out of hand lately. I’m sure my Tumblr followers can tell you that.
I’ve been wanting to try bake some myself for ages and finally attempted to do so the other day. I used a plain pink macaron recipe from the Woman’s Weekly Cupcakes Cheesecakes and Cookies book.
What an epic fail.
I did far too many things wrong so I knew as I was making them that they weren’t going to work out well. I didn’t even bother making ganache to sandwich them with. They taste alright though!
At least I know what things I did wrong so that I won’t make those mistakes on my next attempt! Although I have no idea how to fix the whole colour thing… they just completely lost their colour on the outside while they were in the oven.
Will have to do more research me thinks. More attempts to come!
