"Happy Guinea Pig Village" Macarons

 I have a set of really cute guinea pig magnets that I have been wanting to create a bake with for some time. I finally had the bandwidth to play around with it and this was what I made!

Guinea pig macarons filled with smooth Biscoff spread and Nutella dark chocolate, along with a couple of 3D coffee macaron basket weave tunnels!

This project took place during a particularly rainy and humid spell so it was a little challenging to manage although making sure that the meringue was really stiff enough helped the batter to stay stable for a longer time.

I share the process of making the 3D tunnels along with some tips over here:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVhaegjkrXw/?igsh=Z21sN3UwcXRkbm05

Some photos of the process of making the 3D basket weave tunnel...

Freshly piped before transferring to the homemade foil arch

Transferred piped batter onto foil arch 

Baked coffee macaron tunnels!

I shared the process of making the guinea pig macarons along with some technical tips of working in humid conditions over here:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVpI4G-kj3p/?igsh=ZTZtMTQ1ZjEwNGJw

Some photos of the process of making the guinea pig macarons...

Freshly baked macaron shells along with the original magnet references

Check out the awesome feet on the shells!

I added in the details with gel food coloring and edible black marker.

It's the first time I am testing out using gel food colouring instead of cake paint after a long time because it didn't work for me in the long past but since it works for some macaron bakers, I thought of giving it a shot again. It takes a much longer time to dry than cake paint but it still works.

Filling with Biscoff spread and Nutella dark chocolate

I used my default Swiss meringue method recipe for both guinea pigs and tunnels but for the tunnel, I used the variation of the recipe where all the egg whites are used for making the Swiss meringue and folded until dry ingredients are just combined with the meringue.

with love,

Phay Shing

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Nutella Horse Pop Tarts

 Nutella tarts are one of the favourite treats people look forward to during festive seasons like the Lunar New Year. I have given a makeover to this humble simple bake as part of welcoming The Year of the Horse!

Here's a peek at the yummy insides!

The outsides are yummy too as I coloured/flavoured the tart crust with cocoa powder and cinnamon, and decorated the horse face with vanilla and chocolate edible cookie dough. The tart dough is made with hardly any sugar to bring balance to the whole treat.

Join me for this parent-child class if you are interested in learning how to make. Click on the registration link below to find out more or to register:

https://www.bakersgym.com/service-page/kids-class-horse-nutella-pop-tarts

with love,

Phay Shing

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Christmas Bear Macarons (new decorating technique!)

 This is one of those things I wonder why I didn't think of it earlier and why isn't it already mainstream! These charming Christmas bear macarons are actually beginner-friendly although they look impressive because of a simple hack!

This is a kids' baking class material for December that makes use of edible cookie dough for decorating all the details. The macaron bake becomes beginner-friendly because of that, at least for the heads-only version of the bears. I included the full-body version as well for those who would like to challenge themselves. Edible cookie dough is much yummier and contains much less sugar than fondant or royal icing, which have been the mainstream medium for decorating macarons. Some bakers use macaron batter to include all the details to cut out the additional sugar but using something playdoh-ish makes it so much easier but the end product still looks impressive! The cookie dough sticks by itself onto the macaron shell without needing a glue so it's really handy.

See this reel to see what I mean by it being beginner-friendly!

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DQ6eq8bEgH1/?igsh=MWlvMXIwOWplYXRzdg==

What's on the menu:

- Chocolate macaron shells filled with dark chocolate Nutella filling

- Brown sugar cinnamon macaron shells filled with Biscoff filling

- ALL decorations are made of Strawberry or Vanilla edible cookie dough. No fondant, marzipan or royal icing is used at all so overall sugar load is less!

with love,

Phay Shing

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Piggy Macaron Carousel

It's the first time I get a request for pig themed macaron carousel and I took the liberty of making it a little different from my usual carousels.

Somebody is being cheeky and climbed onto the roof! You can almost hear the piggy snigger 😝! 

I used the Swiss method to make the macaron shells and you may refer to this post for the recipe.

Just to share some photos of the process...

Piping the piggies 

Piping carousel frame pieces. I use Teflon sheet instead of parchment paper for larger pieces so that the base of the macaron shell can remain flat as parchment tends to wrinkle up under the piped batter for larger macarons. 

Nutella was requested as the filling but I added an outer ring of salted caramel filling for aesthetics. Dark brown filling wouldn't look as good against the blue carousel frame. The salted caramel filling is fairly firm as you don't want the piggies to slide down the pole. I will share the recipe here.

Recipe for salted caramel filling
Ingredients:
70g Salted caramel chips
10g Cocoa butter
20g Vegetable shortening
1/4 tsp Sea salt
1/4 tsp Caramel flavouring (optional)

Steps :
1. Place salted caramel chips, cocoa butter and vegetable shortening in microwave safe bowl. Heat on medium-low power for 10 seconds and mix well. Repeat heating and mixing until everything is melted nd smooth. Do not overheat or the mixture will separate. Use some force to mash the salted caramel chips against side of bowl during mixing to help it melt more evenly and more quickly.

2. Add salt and caramel flavouring. Mix well.

3. Chill the mixture in freezer for 1 to 2 min. Stir and whip until texture is lightened. You can choose to let the mixture sit at room temperature until it firm's up to toothpaste consistency without whipping as well but I prefer the former.

4. Transfer filling to piping bag and fill the macaron shells.

Filling the piggies with salted caramel and Nutella. I decorated the shells with edible marker and royal icing. 

Let this set overnight at cool room temperature in airtight condition. 

Fill the carousel frame macarons in a similar way. 

With love,
Phay Shing

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