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