Articles posted by Zaneta

Cake Bake & Sweets Show in Melbourne!

Posted on October 2, 2014 by Zaneta in Macarons No Comments

Bonjour all you sweet tooths! Cake Bake & Sweets Show is coming to Melbourne, Australia–proclaimed as the country’s biggest event for everything baking and cake decorating. (Sorry to our international subscribers! where most of you probably won’t be able to attend).

If you happen to be in the right place (Melbourne, Aus.) at the right time (3-5 October, 2014) then be sure to check yourself in. It’s a three-day live event devoted to the world of baking and the art of cake decorating, and other ‘sweet tooth’ wisdom including baking classes and more.

Prepare to meet and learn from international and Australian baking superstars, celebrity bakers creating tantalising sweet temptations and even macarons! With a lineup including Adriano Zumbo, Anna Polyviou and Pierrick Boyer.

Apparently, one of the attractions will be a wedding chapel made of cake! A life-size wedding chapel? It will be constructed at the show, ready for a REAL WEDDING on Friday afternoon, for one very lucky couple. It probably won’t be George Clooney and Amal Alamuddin, but you never know.

The Queen of Chocolate (Kirsten Tibballs), will be attempting a Guinness World Record at the show–together with her crew they’ll be creating the World’s Largest Chocolate Flower Bouquet. They have already spent over 900 hours work creating individual petals and flowers – good luck guys and gals!

You will even have a chance to sample and buy baked goodies, and check out the latest in baking and cake decorating supplies, tools, books, appliances.

I don’t know about you, but it all sounds exciting!

I wonder what Adriano Zumbo will surprise us with. His Facebook pages says that team Zumbo will be at stand C20 for an abundance of sweet treats including Zumbarons, chocolates, pastries, tarts, verrines, brownies and ICE CREAM. Sounds great!

If you happen to be in Melbourne and have a little sugar crafter in you then be sure to be there!

Learn more info about the Cake Bake & Sweets Show here: http://www.cakebakeandsweets.com/melbourne/

macarons

Macarons baking tip

Posted on December 31, 2013 by Zaneta in Macarons No Comments

Nice to see that the macaron has been included on Mercury News list of ‘7 dessert recipes to satisfy your sweet tooth.’ We couldn’t agree more - macarons are very satisfying!!

An interesting tip there (what we cover in The Macaron Master) is how to work smart with your oven. Knowing when macarons are ready to take out of the oven is important. Take them out too soon and they will collapse. Leave them in for just a little bit longer than required and the delicate shells will go brown - not so great if your shells are pink, for example! So, what’s the best time to take the shells out of the oven? A simple test is to pick one up (choose one that’s not so perfect) and break it. See if it is wet and sticks to the baking sheet. Don’t take them out unless the shells are firm to the touch and fully baked inside.

Paris to Provence - Highlights from the French Festival!

Posted on November 23, 2013 by Zaneta in Macarons No Comments

In my last post I wrote about the Paris to Provence French festival - well, guess what? I was there! I tried some French food, unusual cocktails and even macarons. The people were really nice and the entertainment was great. Here are some photos from the festival.

These lovely people welcomed us to the festival - they seem quite tall!

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These are not your regular cupcakes… it was soap! Yes I know, s-oap.

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Some more soap…

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Not sure why the animals but they sure were cute!

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Look at this goat…

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Massive chicken.

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The Mussel Pot? Great concept that could also work as a mobile macaron trailer!

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What? Only one stall with macarons!? C’mon people! Their salted caramel macarons were pretty delicious. How many can I get for twenty dollars?

macarons

We also visited the historic Como house, watched a snail eating contest (a French man won - that was kind of predictable!) and had some cocktails with chilli and lime juice - hot! And different. I love the French!

Italian Macarons

Paris to Provence - Melbourne’s most anticipated yearly French festival!

Posted on November 21, 2013 by Zaneta in French Macarons, Macarons No Comments

You can smell, touch and taste all that embodies France at this year’s Paris to Provence French festival. paris-to-provence

This fantastic festival is spread across three days (Friday to Sunday, 22-24 November), you can be immersed in the French culture, food and wine, festivities & activities to keep you both mesmerised and entertained.

Entertainment includes croissant tossing, escargot race and the much anticipated Notre Dame puzzles. Of course, a French festival wouldn’t be complete without the glorious macaron so expect some macarons there and even macaron classes.

Anything else? Ouie, ouie!

French property and travel seminars, Pommery champagne tastings, masterclasses and Celebrity French Chefs - it sure sounds exciting!

Also featuring live music, children’s interactive workshops and activities, cultural demonstrations, giveaways including flights to France, roaming performers, curated French open air market… what can I say? it’s a must attend if you’re lucky enough to be there!

You can purchase tickets here.

Paris to Provence

November 22nd - 24th 2013 - Como House and Garden - South Yarra - Melbourne - Australia

Fri 22nd 12-8pm, Sat 23rd 10-6pm, Sun 24th 10-4pm

Learn to make the Parisian macarons!

The Macaron Master is a step-by-step illustrated guide to creating your own bakery-quality macarons. It covers ALL techniques - French, Italian & Swiss! Click here to learn more!

French Macarons, macarons

Convection Oven Baking Tips.

Posted on September 30, 2013 by Zaneta in Macarons No Comments

A convection oven is simply an oven that uses a fan to circulate the hot air. It cooks and bakes food faster and more efficiently. It’s a great oven to use for baking macarons.

Now when it comes to macarons they are fussy little fellows. They require a scientific approach when baking and if you skip a step or get your timing wrong you won’t be seeing macarons!

That’s why getting the process right is so important. And knowing how to make the most out of your baking oven is, well, super important.

That’s why I am so excited in sharing this with you!

I found these tips on the internet. I thought to myself, you really need to see it. Granted not everything applies to macaron baking but still there is a lot of good information in there. Great tips to help you get more out of your convection oven and hopefully improve your macaron making!

convection oven baking tips

convection oven baking tips2

Italian Macarons

Quick tips for beautiful macarons!

Posted on August 31, 2013 by Zaneta in Macarons No Comments

There is no shape or order to today’s post but hopefully it’s filled with lots of useful tips. If you haven’t invested in The Macaron Master yet then do that without delay! For the rest of you, these tips are designed to help you perfect the macaron by helping you understand the science behind the process of making macarons. Hope you enjoy it!

Add cream-of-tartar to egg white foams to stabilize the beaten whites.
The presence of sugar in egg white raises its coagulation temperature, giving the mixture more time to rise before it sets. If your macaron shells tend to rise too high try reducing the sugar a little but not too much as that could throw the recipe off balance!
Don’t add sugar to the egg white until the whites are at soft peak stage, and not later.
Add sugar slowly allowing it to dissolve between additions.
Older egg white whips faster. So does egg white in a cold utensil.
Beat the egg white at medium-high speed for a foam with small bubbles.
Always whip egg white with no trace of yolk, which contains foam-inhibiting fat. Remember, fat collapses the egg white foam.
Keep your hands ‘squeaky clean’ so no grease, oil or moisture gets in contact with the egg white.
Egg white whips better in a copper bowl, which prevents them from over beating.
If your macaron shells look dry and dull then reduce the whipping time. Once the whites have been beaten to stiff peak stage, they quickly become over-beaten.
As soon as egg white is combined with sugar it becomes a meringue. The more sugar you add the harder the meringue will be.

Feel free to share your tips with the rest of us!

macarons

The Macaron Master Recipe | Student From Australia!

Posted on July 31, 2013 by Zaneta in Uncategorized No Comments

Linda from Australia made a batch of beautiful macarons - see below. She has made tremendous progress over the last couple of weeks and is determined to produce the best looking macarons ever. She is almost there! As you can see her macarons look really nice with gorgeous little feet. The shell on the right has some air bubbles, which normally can be fixed with a toothpick but overall it’s a great success and a huge improvement for Linda - great work Linda! I am sure your macaron skills will only get better from here!!

the-macaron-master-recipe-macarons-by-student

macarons

Best Egg Whites For Macarons!

Posted on July 10, 2013 by Zaneta in Macaron Tips, Macarons No Comments

Do you really need to age egg whites for macarons? What egg whites are best for macarons? So, you want to make macarons and you have heard the macaron needs only four basic ingredients:

caster sugar
confectioners sugar
almond flour (almond meal)
egg white

Only four ingredients or three if you want to get really technical so what can go wrong. Yet, many bakers and even experienced patisserie masters get flops or macawrongs instead of macarons! What seems to be the problem? Macaron success starts with quality ingredients. Today, I want to hopefully give you some tips on the egg white. After all, being able to work with, whip and combine the egg white is important.

So, let’s answer the first question for you very quickly. Do you really need to age egg whites for macarons? Well, no. Our macarons recipe covers a fantastic way that helps you ‘age’ the egg white much, much faster than the traditional ‘kitchen-counter’ method. And, it’s safer too! But you can still get away without aging the egg white as long as you handle it correctly. This is probably not ‘breaking news’ to someone with some baking experience but it’s not all that common sense either since I have seen experienced bakers mishandle the egg white in many frightening ways. That won’t make much of a difference in other recipes but macarons … well, you need to be a bit more thorough here. So, on with the egg white…

If you happen to wash the eggs before use then make sure you dry them thoroughly before separating. Washing the eggs makes sense since you might worry about hygiene and bug issues. You don’t want to poison anyone with your food! However, unless you buy your eggs from a farm then they should be fine. Most eggs are properly rinsed and washed to remove any trace of farm life. But, if you still worry… give them a rinse then make sure they are completely dry before cracking the shell–macarons don’t take moisture too kindly!

Next, have two clean bowls. Tap one egg against the lip of the bowl to break its shell. Then very, very carefully half the shell leaving one shell half empty. Give it a quick sniff test to make sure you don’t smell anything funny, if you do - throw it in the bin.

Next, shift the contents between the shell halves over a clean bowl to let the egg white fall into the bowl. You might consider having three bowls one for the egg white, one for the yolk and the last one for the shifting exercise. Egg yolks don’t always separate nice and clean as you would like!

Remember, not to mix any egg white with the yolk since even a tiny speck of egg yolk might alter and even ruin your macarons. The egg yolk has a high level of fat in it and eggs won’t whip well with fat–often, they won’t whip at all! If some egg yolk happens to fall in the bowl of egg white then scoop it out with a clean fork or spoon. Some recommend using a bit of broken shell but I prefer a clean utensil instead.

Hopefully, this helps a bit with your macaron efforts! Just remember, the egg white whips best in clean and sterile utensils - try not to touch it with your hands and makes sure it contains absolutely no egg yolk. Sorry, no compromise here unless you want macawrongs!

macaron tips, macarons

François Payard Macaron Ice Cream Sandwiches!

Posted on June 27, 2013 by Zaneta in Macaron Bakery, Macarons No Comments

François Payard Macaron Ice Cream Sandwiches

François Payard is a French Pastry Chef who combines the macaron cookie with ice cream to create beautiful macaron ice cream sandwiches! While we have no idea how delicious they taste but if they taste as good as they look then we can’t wait to try some!

Ice cream or sorbet is sandwiched together with two macaron cookies to create the macaron ice creams. They are not your typical round cookies or macaron discs but bigger oblong or rectangular meringue cookies. Apparently, flavors include Pistachio Raspberry, Coconut Mango, Strawberry Cheesecake and Chocolate.

If you’re looking to learn more about these amazing macaron ice creams or other creations by this talented pastry chef then be sure

Pierre Hermé Miss Glagla Montebello

to check out his website François Payard.

WOW - macaron ice cream sandwiches! What a fantastic idea. Of course the grand master Pierre Hermé has his own version of the macaron ice creams called MISS GLA’GLA MONTEBELLO.

I hope this post will inspire you to try some and, especially, come up with your own variations of the famous macaron. Be sure to master the macaron first! It all starts with grasping the fundamentals and our macarons recipe makes that easy.

macaron bakery, macarons

Ladurée Macarons At Westfield Sydney - Are They Worth It?

Posted on June 19, 2013 by Zaneta in French Macarons, Ladurée Macarons, Macarons No Comments

best macarons in sydney Last year I published Ladurée Brings French Macarons To Westfield Sydney, Australia happy announcement about the famous French macarons arriving in Australia for the very first time. Ladurée makes some of the world’s best ‘commercially-made’ macarons that look and taste divine. Those Ladurée macarons are blast frozen in Switzerland and shipped to Australia. You might wonder whether blast-freezing doesn’t take away some of the macaron magic - well, let me tell you, they tasted delicious!

So, I have some macaron pics to show you and share with you my Ladurée macarons experience at Westfield Sydney. When evaluating macarons I use the Best Macarons Criteria because taste is so subjective and judging macarons by either good or bad is so … let’s just say unsophisticated. I will share my macaron experience a bit later on but now for those photos!

Ok, Ladurée Westfield Sydney is not your typical macarons bakery - actually, it’s not a bakery at all. It’s a classy macaron boutique right inside the Westfield shopping centre next to big brands like Mulberry. The shiny slabs of marble embellishing the displays give you a sense of opulence and luxury.

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Look at the Ladurée macarons collection!

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Here’s a close-up so you can feast your eyes…

best macarons in sydney

I ordered delicious caramel and chocolate macarons and indulged myself in a little loose-leaf tea ritual. If you want to seat at a table then two macarons would cost you $8 ($4 each or pay $3.20 for takeway). Tea is $7.50 and you will get several cups of warm fragrant and robust tea out of the teapot you see in the pic below. Not sure what the knife was there for - perhaps for sharing? Don’t be silly, nobody shares macarons!

best macarons in sydney

A this stage it became obvious that I needed to buy some more macarons… for later and, of course, for my partner! I didn’t want to get into trouble

best macarons in sydney

How unlucky! Some of the flavours that I really wanted to try weer all gone so I got the following flavors: pistachio, vanilla, chocolate, more caramel, cherry blossom or was it rose?, you can see them below…

best macarons in sydney

Ok, ok here’s a close-up…

best macarons in sydney

They truly tasted great! Going beyond ‘great’ here’s what I was looking for and how I rated the macarons on that occasion:

shell texture – I was looking for smooth delicate and slightly crispy but not crunchy shells (5/5)
filling texture – I enjoy smooth, light and flavourful fillings (5/5)
flavour – needs to be distinct and not overly sweet; was the pistachio macaron flavoured with almond essence? It certainly tasted that way! I gave a bite to my partner and he was a little disappointed. Perhaps it was just an odd one. (4/5)
aesthetics – the shape of macarons was consistent and the feet were pronounced, it appears that some shells had empty hollows but overall they looked cute, smooth and consistent! (4.8/5)
aftertaste - this is important. You don’t want macarons to be so dry that you feel like you’re about to choke on some dry baked mixture and soggy macarons will ruin the experience. These macarons weren’t any of that. The shells were firm and the filling was smooth - they did melt in my mouth. But at times, I could taste some ‘crumbs’ and don’t think it was almond meal. Plus the almond essence taste mentioned above… (4/5)
value – you pay $3.20 so a tiny bit more than other places but you get to experience the most French French macarons without globe-trotting to Paris! (5/5)

*Each of the above was ranked on a five point scale (0-5).

Hopefully you have enjoyed this review. Please note that I described my personal experience and that of my partner’s and we didn’t try all of their macarons on alternating days so your experience may differ. I would definitely recommend Ladurée Macarons - they look and taste delicious! If you’re trying to master the macaron then you might invest in a reliable macarons recipe and also pay Ladurée Macarons a visit!

Their address in Australia:

Ladurée Macarons
Level 3 Westfield Sydney
Cnr Market Street & Pitt Street Mall
Sydney, NSW 2000

French Macarons, Ladurée Macarons, macarons