'uStiletto Massage Station' Earl Grey Lavender Macaron Carousel

I feel honoured to be able to bake for an event for Osim. This post features one of my two baked items for the event --- a carousel to promote their uStiletto foot massager!

The other bake for Osim was high heel shoe cupcakes and you may see it in this post.

When I was given the task of designing a carousel to promote the three different designs of leg massager, I was stumped. I thought a carousel with just the leg massagers will look weird. And so, thank God that I had the inspiration to create a little massage station with ladies using the leg massagers under the umbrella of the carousel :).

That also means that the design of the carousel would be more complicated. The subjects woule be full body versions of ladies sitting on chairs using the massagers, and the carousel structure has to be taller. It took me longer than usual to come up with the templates for the subjects...

Template

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 baked shells...

Piping the shells

Freshly baked shells

Checkout the awesome feet!

Decorating the shells was a little unnerving because I had to ensure that the leg massagers look like the actual product! Thank God they are recognisable. *Phew*! I had to pipe/draw by freehand using royal icing or edible marker.

Decorated shells!

I filled the shells with a ring of lavender white chocolate on the outside and filled the middle with Earl Grey white chocolate. You may refer to this post for the recipe for the filling.

I brushed the bottom of the shells with Earl Grey Lavender sugar syrup to soften the shells a little. I didn't measure the amounts of the ingredients but just created a syrup that is flavoured with both teas. This technique of brushing syrup onto shells is not new as some professionals use this technique to speed up maturation process of the shells.

Brushing syrup onto the shell.

Piped filling on the shell

Assembled carousel structure. I think it looks beautiful on its own :)

Filling shells of the carousel subjects

Ladies on poles!

I cut the paper straws to the appropriate length before attaching the ladies onto the carousel structure with royal icing.

As usual I get the comment that the carousel is too pretty to eat :p. Here's a peek of the carousel at the event. Tucked away in top left corner of the picture.

With love,
Phay Shing