Shiba Inu, Rilakkuma & Korilakkuma Vegan Mitarashi Dango Macarons

 This was the last project I embarked on before focusing on making marshmallows to take step-by-step photos for Deco Marshmallows. Shiba Inu, Rilakkuma and Korilakkuma Mitarashi dango macarons! 

The macaron shells, decoration and filling are all vegan except for the caramel coated Pocky stick.

This is my third attempt at vegan macarons but first attempt at Swiss method for vegan macs. I think I prefer this to the French method which I used earlier for my Hanami dango macarons. I decorated the macaron shells with vegan royal icing. The brown shells are coloured with Hojicha powder.

Inspired by Mitarashi Dango, which is a traditional Japanese rice dumpling smothered in an irresistibly sweet soy sauce glaze. The dumplings are skewered on a bamboo stick and enjoyed all year round. I filled mine with toasted white sesame ganache and soy sauce caramel, both are vegan. But the "wooden skewer" is a caramel Pocky biscuit stick which is not vegan. I can't bring myself to make that from scratch as well after all the work 🙈.

I am unable to share the recipe and method as I intend to use it for future class material. But you may have a look at my Instagram reel to see the process of making these! 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cq2y5L5guLv/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Just to share some pictures...

Freshly baked macaron shells! Although the brown is coloured with Hojicha powder, you can't taste it much as the filling is strong flavoured.

Toasting white sesame seeds until aromatic

White sesame paste made with a little peanut oil and a pinch of salt added to toasted white sesame.

Filling macaron shells with toasted white sesame soy sauce ganache and soy sauce caramel. Not forgetting the caramel Pocky stick!

These macarons have a depth of flavour that is so delightful! From the first bite until you swallow, the lingering taste in your mouth changes. My kids gave a thumbs up!

Keep a lookout for class announcement for Shiba Inu Mitarashi dango macaron class probably third quarter of this year on my Instagram!

with love,

Phay Shing

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Sugar-free Rilakkuma Chocolate Swiss Roll

 In the midst of writing Deco Marshmallows, I couldn't resist taking a little time out to make this simple bake because we stumbled across an awesome source of chocolate that is 100% cacao with no sugar added BUT is so smooth! Once we tasted the chocolate chips which were suitable for use in baking and making hot chocolate, I knew I had to try it for my bakes. Most other 100% cacao chocolate we have tasted tend to be a little dry and gritty. Here's my rich chocolate swiss roll made without white sugar!

Even the decoration for Rilakkuma is made without white sugar!

The Swiss roll is made of sugar-free chocolate chiffon sponge and sugar-free dark chocolate cremeux. Those of you who aren't familiar with cremeux, it is a cross between ganache and custard.

Where is this awesome chocolate from you may ask? It is from Pascha. I used their unsweetened dark chocolate chips. The sugar replacements I used for the cremeux are a mix of Allulose and Maltitol, and for the chiffon sponge I used a mix of Alchemy fibre (which is a blend of Inulin and edible gum) and Allulose. Why these choices of sugar replacements? They are all soluble in water so you don't get any grittiness from them like you would from Erythritol. While Alchemy fibre is not sugar, it adds bulk to the bake, is a good meringue stabilizer and good for diabetes management and digestive system. I thought of using it when I saw Swee Heng, a bakery chain in Singapore, use it for their sugar-free chiffon cakes. While Maltitol is a sugar replacement, it contains carbohydrates and will raise the blood sugar levels a little (but much less than sucrose), unlike Allulose and Alchemy fibre. I used a little Maltitol instead of using all Allulose because I have it lying around at home and it needs to be used up 🙈. All the sugar replacements used here taste less sweet than white sugar (sucrose) so I used more than if white sugar were used. The chocolate doesn't contain sugar at all so that needs to be compensated as well. You may adjust the amount of sugar according to taste. We don't have a sweet tooth so if you prefer sweeter tasting cakes, please add more sugar replacement.

Sugar-free dark chocolate cremeux (with yuzu option)

Ingredients:

150g heavy cream (may replace with 40g butter and 110g full fat milk)

150g full fat milk

60g egg yolks (about 3-4)

55g Allulose (45g if not adding yuzu concentrate)

20g Maltitol (15g if not using yuzu concentrate, may replace with Allulose)

Pinches of salt

140-145g sugar-free 100% cacao dark chocolate (unsweetened)

3g gelatin bloomed in 20g 100% yuzu juice concentrate (optional)

1. If adding yuzu, bloom gelatin in chilled yuzu juice concentrate. Set aside. Omit gelatin if not adding juice concentrate.

2. Whisk together egg yolks, salt and sugar replacements in a heatproof bowl. 

3. In the meantime, heat milk and cream in a saucepan until steaming hot but not boiling. Pour into egg yolk mixture in a thin stream while whisking the egg yolk mixture to temper the egg yolks. Pour everything back into the saucepan.

4. Whisk the custard and cook until 82-84C. 

5. Place chocolate and bloomed gelatin in large mixing bowl. Pour hot custard over and let it sit for 2 minutes. Use an immersion blender to blend until smooth.

6. Press cling wrap onto the cremeux and cool to room temperature before refrigerating overnight or at least 4 hours.

7. When ready to assemble with sponge, remove from fridge and let it sit at room temperature for 30 minutes. Loosen the cremeux gently with a spatula before using.

I added a little yuzu to offset the richness of the chocolate. You may use orange juice concentrate and orange zest to add some citrusy notes too.

Sugar-free chocolate chiffon sponge

Ingredients (makes one 10x12" and one 7x7" sheet cakes):

Egg yolk batter

4 egg yolks

10g Allulose

20g sugar-free 100% cacao dark chocolate (unsweetened)

45g vegetable oil

45g boiling hot water 

10g cocoa powder (I used Valrhona)

65g cake flour

½ tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

1.5 tsp vanilla extract 

Meringue

4 egg whites

30g Alchemy fibre

70g Allulose

¼ tsp cream of tartar 

1. Line the trays with Teflon sheets or parchment paper. Preheat oven to 170C. 

2. In a heatproof or microwave safe bowl, bloom cocoa powder by whisking in boiling hot water. Let it sit for 1 minute. Add unsweetened chocolate and stir until melted and smooth. Microwave or double boil if necessary if the chocolate is not fully melted. Set aside.

3. Prepare egg yolk batter. Whisk together egg yolks, salt and Allulose until thick and pale. Add oil and whisk until combined. Add chocolate paste in 2. and whisk until well combined. Add vanilla and whisk until combined. Gradually sift in flour and baking powder and whisk until no trace of flour is seen.

4. Prepare meringue. In a small bowl, whisk together Alchemy fibre and Allulose. In a clean metal bowl, beat egg whites with cream of tartar until firm peaks, gradually add sugar-replacement mix once the egg whites are foamy. 

You should also be able to flip the bowl upside down without the meringue sliding out or flopping around.

Meringue with firm peak

5. Quickly but gently fold meringue into egg yolk batter in three additions. Divide the batter among the two trays in a ratio of approximately 5:2 by weight for larger: smaller tray.

6. Bake for 12 min or until skewer comes out clean. Immediately flip the cakes out onto fresh sheet of parchment paper and roll up the larger cake to cool. Note that each oven is different so adjust temperature and time accordingly.

Freshly baked 10x12" sheet cake

When you are ready to assemble, unroll the large sheet cake and pipe a generous amount of cremeux in the middle of the sponge. Use a small spatula to smooth out the cremeux as necessary. Roll it into a tight roll, cutting off the excess strip of sponge if necessary if you are making Rilakkuma's face for each slice of cake. Refrigerate for 2 hours.

In the meantime, you may cut out Rilakkuma's ears from the smaller sheet cake using 2-2.5cm round cookie cutters. Cut off a little cake along the circumference with the same cutter so the ears can sit nicely on the head. Keep the small cake cutouts in a container or covered until ready to assemble.

I used white strawberries for Rilakkuma's snout as it is in season now. You may use other fruits like banana if you wish but dip it in lemon juice to prevent oxidation. I used mango for Rilakkuma's inner ears. I used a smaller round cutter or you may use jumbo straw to cut it out. Leave the cut pieces of fruit on paper towel in the fridge to remove excess water.

When it is time to assemble, you may melt a little chocolate with charcoal powder (or use black chocolate) and added on the eyes, nose and mouth of a cut slice of swiss roll. Cut slices of swiss roll with a serrated knife and arrange the ears and facial features on the serving plate. 

Serve with extra fruits (highly recommended) as this is a very rich cake that serious chocoholics can appreciate. And by serious chocoholics I mean those who appreciate cacao without too much added sugar to offset the natural bitterness. My hubby is one such person and he's the type that likes his eating chocolate, chocolate drink and chocolate bakes with a touch of bitterness from the cacao. Needless to say, hubby gave a thumbs up for the cake! Best eaten chilled when the cremeux is firmer.

with love,

Phay Shing

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'Korilakumma-Claus is coming to Town' Chiffon Cake

Ho Ho Ho! Korilakumma-Claus is coming to town!  

A just-for-fun creation, as we know that the true meaning of Christmas is the birthday of Jesus! 💓

The creation is made entirely from chiffon cake, including the chimney that is carved from a square chiffon cake.

A different year this year, hope you having a good holiday with your loved ones!

With love,

Susanne

 

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Rilakkuma, Korilakkuma and Kiiroitori Cookies n Cream Choux Pastries

I have been getting a lot of macaron requests but few choux pastry requests. I am not sure if it's because people don't really like choux pastry or they don't know that there's so much potential for creativity. And so, I decided to take one day out of my schedule to work on something to showcase what choux pastry can be like 😊. Presenting my full body version of Rilakkuma, Korilakkuma and Kiiroitori choux au craquelin filled with cookies n cream filling!

Pardon me for the lack of pictures as I was really hoping not to take too much time for this impromptu project but I am glad to share my experience.

You may refer to this post for detailed recipe of the choux pastry case. I always use craquelin for the main body of pastry cases as it controls the expansion of the pastry in the oven. But for small parts like ears and limbs, this is not necessary. One little trick I use to make it possible for a range of Deco Choux pastry designs is to get the batter to be as close as possible to the same colour as the craquelin you make. Do keep in mind that there will be some level of browning after baking so aim to go for a brighter, more neon shade that you would actually like when you add colouring to craquelin and batter.

This is the template I made for making the ears, limbs, beak and wings. I have detailed tips in my Deco Choux Pastries book on how you can assemble it on the main body with perfect fit.

Tenplate for ears, limbs, wings and beak. I made extras just in case 

Matching the colours of the batter and the craquelin may be a little tricky at first but with practice you get better at it.

Craquelin on top of piped batter 

I decorated the baked cases with royal icing and some bits of black candy melts..

By the time I was done with decorating the pastry cases, it was around 4 plus in the afternoon and I wanted to catch the sunlight for photography. So instead of making my usual lightened pastry cream which would take a good hour or so including chilling the pastry cream before lightening it up with whipped cream, I decided to go for a filling that can be whipped up in a matter of 5 minutes.

I have some frozen whipped topping left in my freezer so I just defrost it a little using the microwave oven and then whipped it up to stiff peaks. Added some crushed oreo cookies (I bought those without cream from Redman) and viola! I have an instant cookies and cream filling! Not exactly the best tasting since full dairy cream tastes way better than non dairy whipping cream but non dairy cream beats dairy hands down in terms of stability in hot Singapore. What I would recommend if you have the time and ingredients, is to use a mix of dairy and non dairy cream for the best compromise of stability and taste. Use double cream if you are able to as the higher the fat content, the more stable your whipped cream will be.

Non-dairy cookies n cream filling 
Ingredients:
90g whip topping*
30-45g crushed oreo cookies without filling

Steps:
1. Use and electric mixer to whip whip topping until stiff peaks.

2. Add crushed oreo cookies in a few batches to whipped cream and fold in using a spatula

3. Transfer into piping bag and fill the pastry cases just before consumption

*you may replace half with full dairy whipping cream with at least 35% fat.

My kids had fun eating this!

With love,
Phay Shing

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Pusheen and Rilakkuma Tea Flavoured Macarons for Teachers' Day

I had fun with this set of macarons. A bunch of nerdy and studious looking Pusheens and Rilakkumas filled with Matcha or Earl Grey white chocolate ganache for Teachers' Day!

They all seem to be giving teachers the message "Cher, we will study really hard as the best gift we can give you!"

If you aspire to be able to create macarons that have character and speak to volumes to you, I encourage you to get a copy of my books Creative Baking: Macarons and Creative Baking: Macaron Basics. They are companion books and have complimentary focus and content.

Like I mentioned in my second book, I choose the type of method to use depending on size of batch and colour range. For this fairly large batch of macarons, I use the Italian meringue method. I replaced some icing sugar with rice flour and a bit of cornflour as suggested in my second book too on how you can reduce the amount of sugar used if you wish, without compromising structure.

Just to share some photos of the process..

Piping Pusheen shells

Piping Rilakkuma shells

Freshly baked. All 51 of them! Checkout the awesome feet!

I actually made a small batch of mooncake macaron shells as well since it's the same colour base as Rilakkuma so stay tuned for that post!

I filled in the ears of Rilakkuma with royal icing and drew in the details in black edible marker.

I filled the shells with Matcha or Earl grey white chocolate ganache. This is a fairly firm whipped ganache that can allow for storage in air-conditioned room for three days. I scaled down the recipe to a third and reduced the amount of whipping cream used to make the ganache slightly firmer.

Wishing all teachers Happy Teachers' Day! Thank you for all your hard work and dedication!

With love,
Phay Shing

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Rilakkuma Custard Cream Puffs

I made these Rilakkuma custard cream puffs along with my turtle Matcha cream puffs :)

I am posting this after I have tried another recipe for the Choux pastry case which I prefer as it's puffier. But I will still share the recipe I used here, which is still good. The pastry cream recipe will be one I am sticking with as it's smooth, yummy and I get to use up my excess egg yolks from making macarons or chiffon cakes. Both pastry cream and Choux pastry case recipes are adapted from Little Miss Bento.

Recipe for pastry cream (custard)
Ingredients:
200ml milk
35g caster sugar
18g cornflour, sifted
2 egg yolks
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
10g softened unsalted butter

Steps:
1. Whisk together egg yolks, cornflour and sygar in a bowl. Set aside.

2. Heat milk in saucepan until boiling. Remove and pour into egg yolk mixture in a slow and steady stream while whisking the egg yolk mixture continuously.

3. Pour the mixture back into saucepan and heat over medium-low heat while stirring continuously. Keep an eye on the mixture as it will start to thicken suddenly. Take it off the heat to continue stirring if necessary to prevent the custard from becoming lumpy, then put it back on the heat again. Keep heating and stirring until consistency is like smooth curd.

4. Remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla. Transfer into another bowl and place a cling wrap over the surface, touching the custard. This is to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate until ready to fill the Choux pastry cases.

I made Matcha and plain pastry cream. I love the smoothness of the cream!

Recipe for Choux pastry cases

Similar to the recipe I used previously but this one has more butter, salt and sugar.

Ingredients (makes about 15 Rilakkuma heads):
75g water
50g milk
62g unsalted butter
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
35g bread flour*
40g plain flour*
2 eggs, lightly beaten (may not use all)

* You may use either bread or plain flour only. Bread flour makes the pastry more crispy and stronger in structure but plain flour gives it a more delicate bite.

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 180℃. Prepare the Choux pastry case. Place water, milk, salt and sugar in saucepan. Bring to a boil while stirring constantly. Once it reaches a roiling boil, pour mixture into the flour.

2. Use wooden spoon or spatula to mix well until a ball of dough forms. Return to saucepan and continue to stir over low heat for 2-3 minutes to cook the dough. Do not brown the dough. Remove from heat and let it cool for about 10 minutes.

3. Add egg a little at a time and mix well with each addition. Towards the end, test the consistency. It should fall off the spatula slowly and leave a streak that doesn't collapse on itself in the batter.

4. Transfer batter into piping bag with a hole cut at the end. Pipe circles according to the template drawn. Pipe the head, legs and tail. Use a finger wet with water to tap down any peaks, especially the small piped parts.

I used my macaron template for piping the rilakkuma heads

5. Bake at 180℃ for 20 min followed by 160℃ for another 20min. Turn off the oven and leave it in there for another 10 min. Do not open the oven door during baking as it may cause the pastry to deflate.

6. Use a knife or toothpick to pierce the side of the Choux cases while hot to release any steam.

Cool completely before decorating with melted compound chocolate. I melted the chocolate with a little vegetable shortening.

You may store baked cases in airtight container until you are ready to fill and serve. Undecorated cases can be toasted to make them crispy again. But if you have already added chocolate decoration, please don't reheat the cases.

Fill piping bag that has been fitted with a small piping tip with pastry cream. Make sure the hole at the side of the cases is large enough to insert the piping tip in before filling with pastry cream.

Best served immediately if possible. The contrast in texture between the crisp shell and cold, smooth pastry cream is the best when the cases have not turned soggy yet. You may store filled Choux pastries overnight in the fridge.

With love,
Phay Shing

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Rilakkuma & Kiiroitori Earl Grey Lavender Macaron Carousel

My dear friend who has been a loving sister in Christ and have always so encouraging requested this for her daughter's birthday. Presenting my sweet girly Rilakkuma and Kiiroitori macaron carousel!

I filled the carousel with Earl Grey lavender filling as requested. I added both dried lavender and Earl Grey together in the mix.

I used the reduced-sugar macaron shell recipe. Both regular and reduced sugar recipes can be found here. You may refer to my Creative Baking: Macarons book for a systematic presentation of the basics and complex shaped macarons. You may refer to my video tutorials for macaron basics and piping of complex shapes on the blog too. You may refer to this post for the dimensions of the shells required to make the carousel and the respective baking times. I piped a scalloped roof like the one similar to the sheep macaron carousel as I think it's really pretty and it is very helpful for positioning the paper straws during the assembly. Checkout the sheep carousel post for detailed steps of assembly.

Just to share some photos of the process...

Piping Kiiroitori

Piping Rilakkuma

I had extra batter so I made some Rilakkuma heads

Shells were decorated with edible marker

Partially assembled carousel. Don't they look like they are pole-dancing? :p

So glad that the overall girly and sweet effect was carried across :)

With love,
Phay Shing

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Korilakkuma and Kiritori Strawberry Yoghurt Chiffon Cake

I love Korilakkuma and Kiritori! I made this adorable pair from chiffon cake for my old church friend’s daughter! KRK and Kiritori are good friends of Rilakkuma. Last year I made for her Rainbow Little Twin Stars =), maybe she likes things in pairs!

The recipe for Strawberry Yoghurt Chiffon Cake is from here, same as Miffy’s. Here, I doubled the recipe for a 9-inch chiffon tin and instead of straight lines, I made wavy lines by depositing mounds (more details on waves in Creative baking: Chiffon Cakes). I used a Reduced egg yolk Vanilla chiffon recipe for the Korilakkuma by baking it in 2 glass bowls for the body, and 4 cake pops for the ears and feet, and a swiss roll for the arms. I used the Lemon Chiffon recipe in Miffy’s for the Kiritori by baking in the same glass bowls. All other details are cut from layer chiffon cake.

My friend shared they looked just like the stuffed toys and everyone wow-ed! =p Very thankful it was well-received!

With love,
Susanne

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Rilakkuma & Kiiroitori Dark Chocolate Macarons (Tsum Tsum series part 1)

Susanne's friend requested for 10 different designs of Tsum Tsum macarons that don't require refrigeration. This is the first time I am making so many different designs in a single bake! I will be posting a 5-part series of Tsum Tsum macarons. Will intersperse the macs with other bakes now and then so you don't get tired of seeing macarons :p.

To kick off the series, here are some Rilakkuma, Korilakkuma and Kiiroitori macarons!

Needless to say, it was a challenge to handle so many different colours of batter with much portioning to do...

Sorting out the masses and Italian meringue! Need to be careful with the math! Picture shows only half the amount!

This is not the first time I am making Rilakkuma macarons. I made them before with different fillings here and here.

You may refer to this recipe for the basic batter and steps and my newly made macaron video tutorials just in case you need more visuals :).  Just some points to note...

Divide the mass and Italian meringue into 3 equal portions. Colour one portion yellow with gel food colouring. Colour the other two portions by adding sifted cocoa powder until a desired shade is reached 1/4 tsp at a time. Do note that the batter will lighten up in colour after folding in the meringue.

After folding in the meringue, take 1 tbs of dark brown batter and colour it black with 1/8 tsp charcoal.

Transfer batter to piping bag fitted with Wilton #12 tip to pipe yellow, light brown and dark brown. Transfer black batter into piping bag fitted with  Wilton #5 tip. Pipe the chick's hair.

Dry for 1-2 hours or until you are able to run a finger across the surface of the shells in an air-con room. Too humid in Singapore to air-dry in the open.

Shells about to be baked!

Bake at 130-140°C with tray at lowest or second lowest rack for about 17-20 minutes. Continue baking at 120°C if the shells are still not dry and check after every 5 minutes.

Freshly baked shells!

Use royal icing to add on the features and oven dry at 60°C fan mode.

Filling with melted dark chocolate (I used Meiji brand)

Keep a lookout for My Melody & Piano, Little Twin Stars, Cinnamaroll, Tuxedo Sam and Hiro from Big Hero 6!

Here's a peek at about two-thirds of the whole batch individually packed!

With love,
Phay Shing

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Rilakkuma Earl Grey and Cocoa Macarons with Whipped Caramel Filling

I have a request for Rilakkuma macarons with caramel filling. The timing of this request coincided with my Mickey and Minnie caramel macarons so I could make these two batches together!

Here's the template I used for piping Rilakkuma's head.

The instant Earl Grey and cocoa content I used is quite low in this recipe as I wanted the shells to be naturally coloured and look as close as possible to the original Rilakkuma. Feel free to add more tea powder or cocoa if you wish to have a stronger flavour. I bought this instant Earl Grey powder from Yamakawa.

Recipe for Earl Grey and cocoa macaron shells
Ingredients (makes about 40 macarons for each flavour or 80 shells):
200g superfine almond meal/ground almond
200g icing sugar
4g instant Earl Grey powder
9g cocoa powder
160g egg whites, preferably aged. Divide into one 80g and two 40g portions
200g caster sugar
75ml water
1/8 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
1/8 tsp caramel extract (optional)

Steps:
1. Divide the almond and icing sugar into two portions for cocoa and Earl Grey flavours. Sift the almond, icing sugar and cocoa or earl grey powder together. Add 20g of egg whites into each mixing bowl and add the extracts if you wish. Here's how the masses look like...

2. Prepare the Italian meringue. Heat up caster sugar and water in a small saucepan without stirring while beating the rest of the egg whites in a clean metal bowl. Be careful not to beat the egg whites beyond the soft peak stage. Reduce mixer speed if necessary but don't stop moving the egg whites. When syrup temperature reaches 115°C, take the saucepan off the heat. Turn mixer speed to high and slowly pour the syrup into the egg whites, avoiding the beaters. Continue beating for another 10-12 minutes until the meringue is stiff/firm, glossy and cooled.

3. Divide the meringue into two equal portions and fold into each mass in two additions. Use a fold and press motion. The batter is ready when it is able to fall off the spatula in an almost continuous manner. Do watch my video tutorial to have a better idea of the right consistency. I left about 2tbs of meringue unused for each flavour.

Macaron batter

4. Transfer the batter into piping bags fitted with a 5-6mm round tip. Pipe out the shells, remembering not to fill the template completely as the batter will spread a little.

Piped Rilakkuma

5. Tap the tray to release trapped air. Dry the shells in an air conditioned room for about 2 hours or until the shell is no longer sticky to touch.

6. Bake at 125-130°C with the rack at lowest position for 20-25 minutes or until shells can be easily lifted off the baking sheet. Let the shells rest on the tray for 5 minutes before attempting to remove.

Freshly baked shells!

Ice the shells with royal icing. I used natural source of colouring for yellow and pink. You may wish to draw on the face with edible marker like I did or use black coloured royal icing.

After the icing has dried (I left mine to dry overnight) you may fill the shells with whipped caramel.

Refrigerate the assembled macarons for at least 24h before consuming.

I played around with some leftover batter so keep a lookout for cute horse and giraffe macarons in the near future!

With love,
Phay Shing

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Rilakkuma and Miffy Macarons

I had a request for Miffy macarons from my friend the same week as the assorted Peppa pig and friends macarons. So I made them together in one single session! Here's Miffy along with Rilakkuma!

Retro look :p

Pardon my poor photography skills. I took many photos of the various macarons (Peppa pig and friends, Garfield, My Melody and this set) in a hurry and this set didn't turn out too well.

Recipe for Miffy macarons is the same as my panda macarons. Recipe for Rilakkuma is the same as my Mickey and Minnie macarons except that I omitted the charcoal powder.

It was surprisingly tough to get Miffy's ears piped well! Or maybe I was just harried with too many different macs to pipe in one session :p

Running out of batter to play with so piped smaller heads :p

Freshly baked and paired shells!

Freshly iced along with Garfield and My Melody. This is only half the batch I made! There were still another 21 Peppa Pig and friends macarons!

Filling up half of Miffy with strawberry swiss meringue buttercream and half with lemon curd and lemon smbc.

Filling up Rilakkuma with cookies n cream smbc.

Glad that the Miffy macarons were well received! My kids got to eat the Rilakkumas and as usual they were happy to eat any leftover macarons!

You may think that I am very good at piping weird shaped macarons. Actually I am still learning and still making mistakes! But with every practice, I learn something new :).

Keep a lookout for my next attempt at Rilakkuma macarons! Made with a different flavour but naturally coloured too ;)

With love,
Phay Shing

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