Famous Landmarks Lavender Earl Grey & Dark Chocolate Macarons

A friend gave me a list of famous landmarks that she would like as macarons, giving me a flexible timeline and whatever landmark I am able to accommodate. This is the kind of request I like 😀! Challenges me but I am given the time and space to exercise my creativity. I decided to go for monochrome effect. Here's my version of seven of them!

I managed to make Eiffel Tower, Sydney Opera House, Merlion, Big Ben, Temple of Heaven, Taj Mahal and Leaning Tower of Pisa! I must admit that making these together with two other requests was a challenge. Plus, I had to deal with 3D hemispherical shells with the leftover batter. I was exhausted by the end of the day. The amount of details on some of these landmarks had to be either painstakingly piped on with macaron batter or drawn in carefully with edible marker post-baking. Thank God that I managed to pull it off and they are at least recognisable!


I used the reduced sugar recipe for the macaron shells here. 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. If you are making a batch of these, divide the mass and meringue into ratio of 1:2 for grey:white batter.

Just to share some photos of the process...

Piping the shells. Lots of pulling of batter using toothpick!

Freshly baked shells!

It took me about 3 hours to finish decorating all of them, including eye breaks from focusing on the intricate details. Thankfully Eiffel Tower and Temple of Heaven didn't need post baking work!

I filled one set with Earl grey lavendar white chocolate ganache* and another set with dark chocolate ganache.

*I used the recipe in the link for Earl grey ganache but added 1/2 tsp of dried powder lavender flowers for every 1 tbs of Earl grey powder used.

With love,
Phay Shing