'Heart in a Teacup' Lavender Earl Grey and Dark Chocolate Macarons

When my friend saw the macaron teaset I made last year, she quickly booked me for Valentine's Day order, four months in advance! She already had a cute and visually simple design in mind and I was ready to go with it 😊

Presenting my "heart in a teacup" Valentine's Day bake!

I used the regular Swiss method recipe for the hearts and the reduced-sugar version for the teacups. I had extra red batter left from making display pieces for my boy and girl CNY macaron class so I decided to bake the red hearts in advance and froze the shells.

Dainty red hearts! The little "tail" at the bottom piece is to help the macaron sit nicely in the filling inside the teacup.

You may refer to this post for more details on how to make the macaron teacups. Here are some photos of the process...

I added 1.5tsp of freeze-dried raspberry powder into the almond paste.

Note the dull colour. Natural sources of food colouring are usually dull.

After adding some pink gel colouring. I added a little too much pink so I added a little white gel during the macaronage stage.

I love the final soft dusty rose pink colour!

The teacups are made of a few components that need to be piped out.

The saucer

The handles

Teacup body

Piping the cup base when a sticky membrane has formed on the base shell.

Freshly baked macaron shells!

I decorated the teacup with royal icing made using lemon juice instead of water to make it less sweet. I filled the handles with white chocolate. I couldn't help taking a photo of this whimsical setup!

I filled the hearts with whipped dark chocolate ganache

I filled the teacups with Earl grey lavender whipped white chocolate ganache

Both flavours of fillings are relatively firm so they are suitable for filling macarons that are to be given away as gifts in tropical Singapore, such as these teacups. If you are living in a colder climate, you may adjust the filling recipe to reduce the chocolate to cream ratio for a softer filling.

Store filled macarons in airtight condition in the fridge for at least 24h before serving. Leave the teacups out at room temperature for 15-20 minutes before opening the container to serve.

If you need more comprehensive and detailed information about the basics and various techniques of macaron making, you may refer to my Creative Baking: Macarons or Creative Baking: Macaron Basics books.


With love,
Phay Shing