French Macaroons, a step-by-step recipe

 

That’s it, after a 6-hour class and two further attempts at home, I can finally say that macaroons are not that though to make! It might sound strange but it is true: macaroons require a good recipe, a good method and some precision. But if you follow all the steps and have a good eye to what looks like the right consistency, you’ve got it and you will be able to make batches and batches of fantastic macaroons.

In this post I will try and give as much detail as possible to help you bake perfectly cue little macaroons. But if you are serious about this, and live in London, I really recommend you take the macaroon class at Cakes4Fun in Putney (London, UK).

How to put a nozzle on a piping bag?

For my birthday, back in December, my husband offered me a baking class at Cakes4Fun in Putney. You can imagine I was overjoyed! Somehow though, I did not get to do this class until June this year. The first time I booked  a class, there was an error in the online system and my booking was not taken into account. The second time, all was going well but then there was a flood in their kitchen and so they had to cancel all their classes. By that time it was already March and the courses were fully booked for April. With the wedding coming up in may, booking a baking class was the last thing on my mind. But when we came back from honeymoon, I went back on their website again, and (oh luck!) they had introduced a macaroon class! Something I had been wanting to do for ages! Macaroons have such a reputation of being difficult to make that I never dared trying them on my own. When you don’t get what you want, it can be because something even better is awaiting you!

Bali recipe #3 – Balinese Peanut Sauce

My favourite recipe form our balinese cooking class is this peanut sauce. I could just have eaten it with a spoon! It is extra easy to make – especially when you have a food processor – and it is so very versatile. You can use it as a dip to be served with some snacks, or as a sauce for a main course. It complements meat, fish, veggie or soybean dishes equally. Delicious with gado – gado!

Mini Lemon curd tiramisu – how to use wedding cake leftovers?

Plenty more Balinese recipes to come but let’s take a break for now and look at what happened AFTER the honeymoon. As we had left for Bali literally a day after the wedding festivities were over, we just had time to drop everything by the flat, take our luggage and leave. I also took the time to wrap our leftover wedding cake into cling film and put it in the freezer.

I had sliced it into several sections, and frozen these separately. When we came back it was great to unfreeze a slab of cake and enjoy it on the sofa on a nice Sunday, especially since I had not had a chance to taste it on the day – too busy chatting to everyone! I kind of remember having a spoon of cake on the day from someone’s plate but that’s about it. So yes, a bit of cake was very enjoyable .. but then wolfing down slice after slice of lemon cake was not doing any good to my waistline – and after all the efforts to look my best on my wedding day, I was not going to fatten up so quickly! The thing is it is not great to serve your old wedding cake to guests, so I started looking at what else I could do with it, that I felt I could serve to any visitors.