Mini French Macaron Cupcake Toppers

You may know by now our love for French Macarons and of course our love for cupcakes! So we decided to combine the two in mini form! We were making some pink, shimmery macarons for a very special party tomorrow! We had a little bit of batter left and thought it would be so cute to pipe out some mini macarons just to see how the turned out! Well, we have to admit, they were too cute! So we popped them on some mini cupcakes with blue buttercream frosting and here is the result! How dainty would these look all lined up on a sweet table!?!

French Macaron Recipe Here

Italian Buttercream Recipe Here

European Romance

My oh my....when we saw this wedding on Martha Stewart Weddings we were blown away by all of its grace and beauty! It is simply one of the most elegant and romantic weddings we have seen! Although this wedding took place just a few miles from New York City, it literally gives the feel of being swept away to a beautiful, intimate countryside European village.
The bride wore a stunning silk-tulle, French lace and ostrich-feather dress the she designs herself! The groom wore a Ralph Lauren Black Label Tuxedo. The bride also created her niece's flower girl dresses. We love the colors pallet and feathered neck collars!

The blush, romantic colors of the roses, ranunculus, pieris, hellebores and dusty miller are blended perfectly together to create a lovely bridal bouquet.

The beautiful couple was married in front of a grand fireplace draped with a floral garland.
The escort cards were cuffed around long, slender white candles.

Ok, now on to the dessert table...where do we start!?! It is like peering into a whimsical perfectly colored French patisserie. The couple choose to serve a French croquembouche in leiu of a wedding cake...which we love! French croquembouche's are so gorgeous and are such a beautiful, unique option to serving cake. They are essentially creme puffs held together with caramel and usually decorated with delicate sugar flowers. The dessert table was like a confectionery dreamworld and also displayed beautiful madeleines, mini eclairs and French macarons. We loved the interesting pineapple shaped (a symbol of friendship) madeline structure, it added such interest and beauty to the table!


To see more of this timelessly romantic wedding visit Martha Stewart Weddings!

Theurel and Thomas Maison de Macaron

Have you heard of Theurel and Thomas? It is like an elegant art gallery that houses bold and colorful French macarons. Located in an affluent suburb of Mexico, it is a truly innovative and highly creative patisserie! It features an all white interior which highlights the contrasting colorful macarons beautifully! What a luxurious and tasteful concept, what gorgeous branding and advertising...we are smitten!

Macaron Cafe

Before we left for NY there was only one place that we knew we HAD to go to...the Macaron Cafe! There are two locations in NY, lucky for us there was one just blocks from our hotel in Chelsea. The Macaron Cafe was created to pay homage to the perfect little French confection...and pay homage they do! When you walk in you are greeted by a rainbow of beautiful colors and flavors....everything from the simple and pure vanilla and chocolate to more exotic flavors such as cassis violet and lychee rose! I have to say my favorite was the fleur de sel! It was a perfect combination of caramel and sea salt, it simply melted in your mouth! Kellie and I were giddy over the "Marie Antoinette" inspired illustrations on their coffee club cards and adorable gift boxes! Although the store front is very small, it is very charming and perhaps the best part of it all was the clear balls hanging from the ceiling filled with macarons! We loved it so much, we had to go back and get our familes a box filled with macarons before we left NY! So if you are ever in the area we suggest you stop in and treat yourself...you won't regret it! In the meantime, if you don't have plans to visit the big apple, The Macaron Cafe created a recipe book, so you can attempt these little treats at home....if you dare!

On the seventh day of Christmas....

my true friend gave to me....seven macarons for the Parisian in me! Icing Designs had the honor of being part of Whipperberry's twelve days of Christmas extravaganza! Each day they are featuring a free printable, an amazing gift idea and a tutorial! Heather, one of the sweet Whipperchicks, sent us one of their gorgeous printables and asked us to make some French macarons and photograph them any way we liked! So this is what we came up with! Hope you enjoy, head over to Whipperberry's blog to check out more of their fabulous gift ideas and download their free holiday printables!

Parisian Macaron Towers

As you know already, Parisian macarons are making apperances everywhere! We just love to see them, they are dainty, airy confectionary perfection! We also love seeing the amazing macaron towers! They are always so proudly displayed in the Laudree window in Paris. They look stunning on dessert tables, make a huge statement and are fairly easy to create!

images via: image via: bobbetteandbelle.com, dalloyau, mysweetandsaucy.com, shaunayounge.blogspot.com, Alon's Bakery, bobbetteandbelle.com, theradioblog.marthastewart.com, lepetitpatissier.files.wordpress.com, bigboysoven.com, weddingbycolor.com

Could macarons be the new cupcake? Part 3 French Macaron Tutorial

As you all know, we are in LOVE with macarons!! We hope you had a chance to read our previous posts about the history of the French Macaron!
Could macarons be the new cupcake? Part 1
Could macarons be the new cupcake? Part 2
Now we want to share with you HOW to make French Macarons. They can be a little tricky to master, so if you don't get them perfect the first time don't be discouraged! We are going to share Martha Stewart's recipe with you (with some notes that we added to make the process a little easier.)

French Macarons
1 cup confectioners sugar
3/4 cup almond flour
2 large egg whites (let eggs come to room temperature before you use them)
pinch of cream of tartar
1/4 cup superfine sugar

Fillings can be seedless jam, buttercream or ganache

Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees
Line your baking sheets with parchment paper

Combine your almond flour and confectioners sugar then sift two times. This can be a process, so we use a wooden spoon to get everything sifted through.



This is what it should look like after the sugar and almond flour are combined correctly

Whisk you egg whites with a mixer until foamy

At this point you can add your cream of tartar and food coloring if you want to make them a certain color. (We add the food coloring at this point because the egg whites can not be over whipped. If you add it after they are whipped you have a chance of over whipping them and this will cause the tops of the macarons to crack when they are baking) Whisk until soft peaks form. At this point add your sugar and whip the eggs whites until stiff peaks form. Stiff peaks are when the egg whites are mixed enough the stand up like a peek with out dropping over. (Martha Stewart's recipe says that this takes about 8 minutes, but it usually only takes us about 3 minutes) As we stated before over whipping will cause the tops of the macarons to crack and under whipping will cause the macarons to spread and not be a shaply cookie.

Sift the flour mixture over the egg whites and fold in until the mixture is smooth and shiny. We usually end up doing about 40-50 folds. Do not stir the mixture, make sure you fold it, if you stir you will end up over whipping the egg whites.
Transfer your batter into a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2 inch round tip. Pipe 3/4 inch rounds about 1 inch apart. (If this is your first time pipping you can take a 3/4 inch cookie cutter and trace it on the back side of your parchment paper
an inch apart. Remember to turn your paper over before actually pipping so that the pen or pencil side is down against the baking sheet...then you can see through the paper and pipe your circles) Tap the bottom of each baking sheet down on the couter, (just lift it slighty off the counter and drop it) to release any air bubbles. Let the unbaked cookies stand at room temperature for 15 minutes. Your oven should be heated to 375 but turn it down to 325 and put the baking sheet in right away. Bake one sheet at a time, rotating half way through until macarons are crisp this should take about 10 minutes. After each batch, increase your oven temperature to 375 heat for 5 minutes and then reduce to 325 and put the baking sheet in the oven right away. This is done so that the macaron creates an egg-shell like outter shell and has a chewy moist inside.

Let macarons cool for 2-3 minutes then transfer to a wire rack. Sandwhich macarons with filling of your choice. Serve right away or freeze unfilled macarons between sheets of parchment paper for up to 3 months.

Could macarons be the new cupcake? (Part Two)

We feel that in order to properly make this post we must tell you the story of Ladurée. Many are familiar with this Parisian patisserie, but there really is an amazing story that explains the transformation of this bakery, founded by Louis-Ernest Ladurée, to the world-wide known patisserie extraordinaire that it is today. As we explained in our last post, the macaron came to France in the 16th century from Italy by way of Queen Catherine de' Medici as the unfilled version of the cookie. They were even said to be served at her wedding to Henry II. Believe it or not, the recipe has hardly varied to this day. It was Ladurée’s grandson who came up with the noble idea of a double decker macaron, stacking two macaron cookies together and filling them with rich chocolate ganache. And “Voila!”... the macaron we know today! So thank you Pierre Desfontaines; we pay homage to you! With each season Laudree pays tribute to its famous macaron and presents the public with a new flavour. The Ladurée macarons, all lined up in their spectacular color range, is truly a sight to behold! If you are familiar with Ladurée, you are familiar with the gorgeous celadon green which has become its trademark color. It has been part of the patisserie for over a century! Almost 10 years after the first bakery opened in 1862, it burnt to the ground during the Paris Commune uprising. A new pastry shop was constructed on the premises and Jules Chéret, credited with interior design of the new shop, used that very celadon color to paint the interior walls.

Ladurée on Champs Elysées (Laduree.com)

Ladurée at Harrods in London (Laduree.com)

Ladurée in Nagoya (Laduree.com)

suchprettythings.com

o´holysweet! from Flickr

If you can’t go to Paris to see all of Ladurée’s mouth watering pastries, Marie Antoinette, the movie directed by Sofia Coppola, can give you a glimpse into the perfect confectionary dream world of Ladurée! All of the delectable pastries you will see in the film were made by Ladurée. Yes, even those gorgeous macarons! Here are a few images to tempt you into seeing it, or to taking that long sought-after trip to Paris!







All photos from Marie Antoinette, the film (2nd down casasugar.com)

Well, if by now you are intrigued with the French Macron, stay tuned for Part 3! In the coming weeks, we will do a step by step tutorial on how to make these delicious little treasures!