Swan Tea Set Dark Chocolate Macarons

I didn't think something could be elegant and cute at the same time. I think this macaron teaset satisfies both very well!

Everything on the cakeboard is made up of macarons! 

I made a have made macaron teacups many times over but this is only my second time making the teapot. You may refer to this post for my first teaset made up of macarons. I made the teapot differently this time round as it was a request without many macarons so it didn't seem practical to have one round of baking just for the teapot lid which needed to be piped on a different sized mould from the rest of the hemispheres. I made the lid as one piece together with the top of the teapot body.

I used the swiss meringue method recipe for this set. I flavoured and coloured the pink macaron shells with some freeze-dried raspberry powder.

Piped parts

You may refer to this post on how to pipe the hemispherical shells.

I decorated the shells with royal icing, edible marker and lustre dust where appropriate

Requestor insisted on them wearing pink tiaras

Although dark chocolate ganache was requested as the flavour, I decided to layer on a little stiff water based white chocolate ganache coloured with a combination of blue pea flower tea and pandan paste. I only added a teeny bit of teal gel colour to brighten up the shade.

Yes water ganache is a thing! 

I didn't measure the exact amount of concentrated blue pea flower tea. Be careful not to add too much liquid to melted white chocolate or it will start to seize. Steep some dried blue pea flowers in boiling hot water for several minutes before using the tea. Use just enough water to cover the dried flowers.

Recipe for stiff blue pea flower pandan white chocolate water based ganache
Ingredients:
55g white chocolate, finely chopped
5g cocoa butter (may replace with white chocolate)
5g vegetable shortening (may replace with butter)
1/8 tsp salt
Approximately 1 tsp concentrated blue pea flower tea
1 small drop of pandan paste
Gel colouring as needed

Steps:
1. Melt white chocolate, cocoa butter and shortening in microwave oven at mediun power for 10 sec. Mix well and repeat until melted. Be careful not to overheat.

2. Add salt and mix well. Chill in freezer for 1-2 min and mix well. Repeat chilling and mixing until you are able to whip the white chocolate mixture until buttercream-like texture. Alternatively, you can prepare an ice bath and whip the melted chocolate mixture with electric mixer until like buttercream texture.

3. Add a drop of pandan paste and mix well. Add concentrated blue pea tea a little at a time, mixing well between each addition. Add gel colouring as necessary. Transfer to piping bag and fill the macaron shells.

Filling the bottom half of the teapot. I had to fill the top half and quickly but carefully invert it over the bottom half. Recipe for dark chocolate can be found here.

Filling the teacup with dark chocolate ganache at the bottom and a layer of white chocolate ganache on top

I couldn't resist taking photo of the teaset before filling the teacups because it looked so cute although the lighting at this time was quite bad

Another shot of the final product! 

I made the fillings fairly firm so the whole set can be kept at cool room temperature for 3 days with no issues. For longer storage, keep in fridge or freezer in airtight condition, preferably with some paper material within the airtight bag/box to absorb any moisture when bringing it back to room temperature.

With love,
Phay Shing