'Bears with Beer Mugs' Macarons -- special farewell gifts!

I usually turn down last minute requests for bakes as I prefer more time to plan and get ready for bakes without stressing myself too much. This time round I didn't just have one but two last minute requests that I entertained. Why so? I have the honor of baking farewell gifts for staff from Marshall Cavendish and Elle! I think my "bears with beer mugs" are becoming quite iconic! Maybe I should give them a name :p.

Earl grey and dark chocolate flavours were requested. So I filled one batch with whipped Earl Grey white chocolate ganache and another batch with dark chocolate ganache, flavour enhanced with good vanilla bean paste. You may refer to this post for the whipped Earl grey white chocolate ganache recipe. I highly recommend it as a filling that can be kept out of the fridge for a few days but not too sweet and very fragrant.  Perfect as gifts! As for the dark chocolate filling I used a ratio of 1:2 for cream + butter:dark chocolate and added in a pinch of salt and some vanilla bean paste. Feel free to adjust the ratio according to how firm you want the ganache to be.

These bears can be found in my newly launched Creative baking: Macarons book so I will not include details here. Here they are in the book!

Just to share some photos and a short video tutorial on how to remove macaron shells from baking sheet...

Remember to peel baking sheet away from shell and not the other way round!

Decorated shells!

Beer mugs attached!

Filling with whipped Earl grey white chocolate ganache

Here's a picture of the bears with the book and Susanne's awesome cake in the background at Marshall Cavendish!

Here's the second batch of farewell gifts packed into transparent boxes for people at Elle!

Thank God that they were very well received!

Checkout the Instagram postings at #ellesingapore and #8days_eat!

With love,
Phay Shing