French Macarons

Today has been a very eventful one, my friend and I decided to make French Macarons and they were a big success! Here is the recipe and method we used. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 cup Confectioners sugar

3/4 cup Ground Almonds

2 Eggs Whites

1 teaspoon Rasberry Essence

1 teaspoon Red Food Colouring

1/4 cup Caster Sugar

One: Sieve sugar & almonds together in a large bowl then process them until smooth & combined.

Two: Separate egg whites & beat until soft peaks form.

Three: Add caster sugar, essence & food coloring and combine until the colour is smooth.

Four: Mix wet & dry ingredients and fold until mixture reaches the consistency of lava.

Five: Pipe mixture into a baking tray lined with baking paper. (tracing a glass helps to keep them all the same size) Leave to rest for 30 minutes or until the macarons have a hard shell on top.

Six: Put in oven at 160 °C for 20 minutes. When cooled down pipe buttercream icing in the middle and sandwich together.

Voilà

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A Lot Of Love

guerrillanerd

Don't these orange choc chip cookies look delightful. You can find the recipe here.

Well it is that time of the week again, yes you guessed it, it's time for Much Love Monday. So here are a few things that I love.

♥The Narnia Series: I am slowly buying all of these books, so in due time I will have all seven of them. When I was little my Dad would read my sister and I a chapter each night and when we got older we started reading them ourselves. I love the world of Narnia where all things are possible, talking animals, nymphs, fauns, they are all so wondrous and exciting. I always wanted it to be real and I suppose a small part of me still does.

♥Freshly Made Beds: There is nothing better than coming home from a long hard day and getting into your newly made bed. The sheets are so crisp, fresh and smell like laundry powder. If I could I would wash my sheets every day just so they could feel that good all the time.

♥Getting Letters In The Mail: I love getting letters. People should write letters more often, we just do the easy thing and txt, email or even just facebook the person. What happened to simply writing an old fashioned letter. Sure it's slow but it is ever so exciting receiving something other than a bill.

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Big Fat Grey Cat

I am loving colour at the moment. These pictures are from Big Fat Grey Cat's Flickr, I think they are so pretty.

It was my friends Birthday yesterday so I baked her a double layered rainbow cake, with butter icing in the middle and royal icing on top. I think it turned out pretty good.

Since it was her 22nd Birthday we decided to get 22 of her close friends and family to give her 22 big birthday hugs, so after dinner I drove her all around town collecting her hugs and dropping of yummy cake. It was a wonderful day.
I hope you guys had a great day as well.

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Cookies & Starry Nights

Tomorrow is my lovely friend Katarena's Birthday. She is one of my best friends and I love her to bits! She is having a party with the theme, A Night Under The Stars. So with this theme in mind, this afternoon I am off to my Mamas house to bake some yummy star shaped cookies. Lets hope they turn out perfect.

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Wedding Bliss

My wonderful mama is getting married this year and I have the privilege of making her wedding cake and invitations. She is marrying the love of her life on the beach and this will be the first time I get to be a bridesmaid. All she wants is a small, simple wedding just with family and close friends. That is totally the opposite of what I want. My wedding day is going to be so full on! But my mamas is going to be lovely as well.
Here are some pictures of the type of cake I will be attempting to make. I just hope I can do it.

These lovelies are from Martha Stewart's website. Aren't they delightful?
My favorite is the third picture, its has so much detail.

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Sweet Treats

One of the things I enjoy to do the most is bake yummy treats... especially cupcakes. There are so many wonderful variations of cupcakes you can create just by perhaps adding an extra ingredient or my favorite, making a new delicious frosting to go on top. A perfectly created cupcake is such a lovely thing, just imagine opening your pantry, lunchbox, fridge or wherever you store these tasty little things and seeing them in their perfection, mmm absolutely mouthwatering.
So if you have a little spare time this week maybe you can make some of these scrummy treats for yourself or perhaps give someone else a little taste of your wondrous baking skills.





You can find more inspiring pictures here.

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