Naturally Coloured Salted Caramel Chick Macarons (Junior chef class)

If you would like to learn how to make macarons in a cute and simple design with your child, why not join me for this chick macaron class 😊. This chick design is adapted from the one in my Macaron Basics book. Health conscious parents will be pleased to know that the yellow and orange colouring used to colour the macaron shells are totally natural. I use turmeric and pumpkin (or carrot) to add the colours.

The filling I chose is a flavour that is popular with kids -- salted caramel.  We fill the macaron shells with salted caramel cream cheese in a ring, followed by yummy gooey salted caramel in the middle. I will be teaching the French method of making the macarons. French method is the simplest method logistically out of the three methods that I use.

As macarons are quite technical, I don't recommend kids that are too young to join. Preferably age 8-15. The older they are, the more hands on they are able to be 😊. But parents with younger kids don't fret. I promise there will be another junior chef class coming shortly after this class in early July that is suitable for younger kids, also with the theme of natural food colouring and it will be fun!

Please click on this link for more information and to register.

With love,
Phay Shing

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CNY Piggy Macarons (Reduced-Sugar Swiss Method)

After giving the awesome Swiss method recipe that my friend Audrey shared a few tries, I am rather comfortable with it. I decided it's time to be a little adventurous and apply the same reduced-sugar method that I applied to both Italian and French methods to this Swiss method. Although I made many other macarons with this recipe, I thought of just presenting something festive, in time for Chinese New Year!

Only the piggies were made using the reduced-sugar method. The boy and girl macarons were made using regular Swiss method recipe, because I made them in preparation for my macaron class. The boy and girl macaron design can be found in my Creative Baking: Macaron Basics book.

I had some spare capacity to make a couple of macarons along with a cat macaron carousel, and so I decided to make the piggies.

Piped macaron batter. I didn't make enough peach coloured batter that's why the bottom shell looks like that 😅.

I decorated the macaron shells with edible marker, royal icing, peach coloured lustre dust and store-bought sugar flower.

I filled the macarons with whipped osmanthus white chocolate ganache

Take a look at how full the shells are!

I am really pleased that the reduced-sugar version works as well! As mentioned in my post for reduced-sugar Italian method, replacing icing sugar with rice flour makes the almond paste wetter as rice flour doesn't absorb as much moisture as icing sugar. So there is a need to reduce the amount of egg whites a little. I reduced the icing sugar and caster sugar portion by 10%. Feel free to double the recipe, use three-quarters of the recipe, or even combine the egg whites into one portion, used for making the Swiss meringue only. As mentioned in my original Swiss method post, some people find it easier to work with all the egg whites in the meringue and then folding in sifted dry ingredients into the meringue.

Reduced-sugar Swiss method
Ingredients (makes about 35-40 macarons):
Almond paste
100g superfine almond flour
90g icing sugar
8g rice flour
2g (1 tsp) cornflour
35g egg white

Swiss meringue
50g egg white
90g caster sugar
1/8 tsp cream of tartar (optional)
1/4 tsp salt (optional)

Steps:
Please refer to this post for the detailed steps. The only difference is if you are working with multiple colours in a single batch, the weight of meringue should be half the weight of almond paste for each colour of batter.

With love,
Phay Shing

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Boy and Girl Chinese New Year Macarons

Those of you who would like to learn the necessary techniques for creating any shape or design of character macarons can join me for this class, also in time to create these adorable treats for Chinese New Year!

Boy and Girl macarons filled with strawberry white chocolate buttercream

The design is taken from my Creative Baking: Macaron Basics book and you will learn how to split a single batch of batter into a few colours, how to pipe batters of different colours side by side to create the clean boundary between hair and face of the character, as well as creating pop-up features like the buns on the hair and the hands. Post-baking decoration involving the use of edible marker, royal icing and lustre dust will also be taught.

Although I shared this design using the Italian method in my book, I will be teaching this design using the Swiss meringue method for the class. Due to the nature of the design and content of the class, I don't recommend complete newbies to join although you won't be banned from it. It would be best if you have some experience baking simple basic macarons or at least be comfortable with doing a range of bakes and piping designs on cakes or cookies. I am afraid newbies may find it overwhelming with too much new information to absorb 😆. Do bring along a spatula (or two.... or three since we are working with three colours of batter) that you are comfortable with as the ones provided by the studio may not be what you are used to working with for macaronage. If you have a candy thermometer that you are comfortable with using, do bring along too.

Please click on this link for more details and to register.

I am also taking this chance to wish everyone a Happy New Year!

With love,
Phay Shing

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Christmas Lollipop Macaron Class

Those of you who would like to learn how to make macarons but have never mustered enough courage to attempt, do join me for this class to make Christmasy lollipop macarons!

This class is meant for beginners as I will cover the basics of French method, the simplest of all methods in terms of technical difficulty. But the design is not like any other you have seen because I will teach you the trick of piping such swirl patterns! This design is taken from my newly released Creative Baking: Macaron Basics book.

Please click on this link for details of what you will learn in this class and for registration.

After this class, you will be able to bless others with this delectable sweet treat 😊

With love,
Phay Shing

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Dreamy Unicorn Macaron Class

I am finally conducting a unicorn macaron class!

You probably find this design familiar as I have used it on my unicorn macaron carousels and they also appear in my Creative Baking: Macaron Basics book.

You will learn the basics of Italian meringue method of making macarons, how to work with a few colours within a batch of batter, how to pipe the unicorn shape and how to make whipped strawberry white chocolate buttercream to fill the shells. Although some experience with making macarons is preferable due to the more complex piping, it is not necessary.

The registration link is here.

With love,
Phay Shing

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Creative Baking: Macaron Basics

Update 4/12/2018: Creative Baking: Macaron Basics is now available at Popular bookstore in Malaysia! You may also Preorder from Book Depository and Amazon!

Update 2/10/2018:
Creative Baking: Macaron Basics is now available in Singapore's major bookstores!

Update 17/8/2018:
Pre-orders for Creative Baking: Macaron Basics is open from 18-28 August.

Those of you who want to order from outside of Singapore, do send an email to booksorder101@gmail.com. You will receive a quote for the book plus shipping charges before you commit to the purchase.

After the pre-order period, the respective expected release dates are:

US release date -- April 2019

This will be for all customers in Canada, North Central and South America.

UK release date -- January 2019

This will be for the Book Depository, and the rest of Europe, Australia and India.

South Africa

Marshall Cavendish has a South African distributor, so those of you in South Africa who are interested can order the books according to the Singapore publication date.  

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The photoshoot is finally over! Thank God for a wonderful team and very smooth phototaking session! The purpose of this blog post is to share what went on during the photography session and I may use this post for any updates about the book in the future. Keep in mind that these are photos of photos taken on screen using my phone camera so what's going to appear in the book will be more beautiful. Presenting my second macaron book, Creative Baking: Macaron Basics!

The focus of Creative Baking: Macaron Basics is different from my first macaron book, Creative Baking: Macarons. Although there is a little overlap in the sense that the basic Italian method is covered for both, I decided to introduce the French method in this book as most homebakers will find the French method easier. Macaron Basics focuses more on different techniques to create various features or designs whereas my first book focuses on a larger variety of designs based on different themes, and the use of natural sources of food colouring for colouring the shells.

Rest assured that although this second book has less designs (total of 14), they are carefully selected such that they are relatively simple and are suitable for special occasions, but yet unique enough, such as...

Valentine's Day

Mother's Day (or Valentine's Day too)

Or even Chinese New Year!

I doubt that you can find any other book giving you instructions on how to make hemispherical macarons...

Or create pretty swirls like these 😉

I had my moments of cute overload too! When I saw the team working on setting up the chick macarons,

I couldn't help but exclaim "Oh my! So cute!!"

Of course the unicorn carousel made it to this book too!

It may seem complex but it's actually made up of fairly basic pieces. I cover how you should make macaron structures in this book too.

Much as the carousel is pretty, we felt that it shouldn't be the center of attention for the book cover as the book title implies something "Basic". After some discussion, we decided to include a deconstructed version of the carousel in the foreground to better reflect what the title of the book (and aim of the book) says. And that is why my hand ended up on the book cover too 😅.

I also included some updates in the recipes for fillings and FAQ/ troubleshooting sections so this is a great companion book to my first one. Templates and links to video tutorials are also provided in the book.

Macaron Basics is expected to be available in stores in Singapore end September/early October. The book will be available on Amazon, Book Depository and Kindle in due time. For those who want to know, the ISBN is 9789814828604.

Keep a lookout for updates!

With love,
Phay Shing

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Video tutorial for French Method of making macarons

I have finally decided to do a full video tutorial for making macarons!

It took me a few hours of processing 14 separate videos and photos to create this 5 minute tutorial 😅. This is precisely why I am not keen on making video tutorials often.

French method is covered as most homebakers will find this easier than Swiss or Italian methods.

The focus of this tutorial is on the basic techniques that newbies may find difficult, especially the part for folding the batter and testing consistency. Please be patient as the book (Creative Baking: Macaron Basics) will only be physically in stores in Singapore by end September/ early October. For UK, it will be around January/February 2019 and US about April/May 2019. Full recipe and baking conditions can be found in the book.

I hope you find this tutorial helpful!

With love,
Phay Shing

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