Guest Post on 6 Bittersweets - Pink Wedding Macarons

Some of you may know I was back in Singapore recently for a wedding of my close friend J. Other than bridesmaid duties, I had also offered to make some of her bridal flowers (reception tables, bridal bouquet and bridesmaids' bouquets) and put together a dessert table for her lunch reception. It was all very fun albeit a little hectic, flying in from London with all my recently collected vintage china, sourcing flowers and ingredients in Singapore and having to make a large batch of macarons, rice krispies treats and meringues. Oh and arranging the flowers, did I already mention that? :)



I had the pleasure of meeting up with Xiaolu from 6 Bittersweets and she kindly took some (amazing) photos and also lent a hand at making the desserts. This was the first time I demonstrated macarons to an audience of more than 1 and I must say it's quite fun! I've guest posted this fun experience, with a photo tutorial, over on 6 Bittersweets.

Xiaolu has very generously decided to give away her copy of i <3 macarons by Hisato Ogita to one lucky reader. To enter, comment on the post at 6 Bittersweets, follow 6 Bittersweets or Heaven in a Wild Flower via email, reader, and/or Twitter (@6bittersweets or @heavenwildfleur). Full details and terms over at 6 Bittersweets. So hop on over to read all about it as well as to visit Xiaolu's amazing blog!

All The Greatest Things!

How has everyone's summer been? I've been up to all sorts of things, but that's not really a good excuse for my absence is it? I put it down to Twitter addiction, busy travel schedule and plain laziness :) There are some pretty exciting projects I've been involved in that I can't wait to share! Some will have to wait but will divulge a couple of things here.

For those who follow the online UK decor scene, you'll know about Heart Home magazine, an exciting online magazine that will be launched in September! It promises to be a collection of inspiring, creative and beautiful interiors and design treasures with a focus on the UK. I'm terribly honoured to be a part of this, and will be contributing a food article to the inaugural issue. Very excited! It took me  a crazy amount of time and effort to bake, style, photograph and write up just one article, it's no wonder I post so infrequently on my blog (tho I should think about posting much shorter photo logs). I can't how much work my lovely friends Arianna, Carole and Daniel over at HHM are up to launch the mag. Good luck guys!

I've also just spent one week taking a floral design course at the Covent Garden Academy of Flowers and it was a wonderful experience! The course I took was  Summer School I, where basics of flower arrangement are taught, along with other technical skills like wiring, contemporary design and structural construction. We made hand-tied bouquets, corsages, table arrangements and larger structures. My favourite must be mossing up a wreath from scratch. Now what does that mean, you may ask? I didn't know before this week either! We take a simple copper wire ring frame and basically wrap bundles of moss around it until it's fat and thick! The resulting wreath is what you see hung on the ladder in the pictures, isn't it lovely?



We got to take what we made home, which means my flat was filled with lovely flowers like a garden :) If you have any interest in flowers at all, I would highly recommend Covent Garden Academy of Flowers. They have a variety of classes on different subjects for various skill levels - from casual 1 day courses to 4-month long intensive courses for those wishing to make a career out of floristry. And other than the skills you'll pick up, it was also a really relaxing and fun experience being at the Academy that differentiates them other places. Gillian and her team are the sweetest and nicest people, often pampering us with tea and cakes while we work hard on our arrangements. Gosh, I really miss my time there already!



I'm going to get more practice next week when I help put together some bouquets and decorations for my friend's wedding in Singapore. Stay tuned for pictures! Speaking of pictures, this week I'm starting a photography e-course run by the amazing Christina Greve of Divas And Dreams. What I love about her work is not just its ethereal dream-like quality, but the fact that she's very encouraging and teaches a lot about positivity and mindset in addition to technical skills.

So yes, there should be a lot more activity on this blog in the coming weeks, thanks for being patient and reading if you're still checking this blog!

New Covent Garden Flower Market

I finally made my way down to the New Covent Garden Flower Market yesterday morning. It's a wholesale market located at in Wandsworth just south of the river from Pimlico. Since it's meant for trade, it opens at 3am on weekdays, and 4am on Saturdays. I aimed to get there at 8am but only found myself at its doors at 9am. *sheepish look* By then, most of the vendors had packed up and only a handful of stalls were still open. Nonetheless, I still managed to score an armful (or rather a whole box) of flowers - hydrangeas, roses, calla lilies, ammi majus, eucalyptus etc. Arranged most of the flowers into a large display. I'll need to get some florist foam so I can do a more structured arrangement next time. Plus I have to wake up earlier!

Mactweets Mac Attack 8 Challenge! - Black & White Sesame Macarons

 After missing the last few rounds of Mac Attack challenges, I am finally back! Thanks to Jamie of Lifesafeast, who reminded me this month's challenge was due this week when I met her at last weekend's Food Bloggers Connect (more on that soon I promise!), I am back with a vengeance!

This month's theme is "Take A Walk on The Wild Side", macarons inspired by Africa and the safari. The first thing that sprung to my mind when I thought about the theme was zebras. Don't ask me why but somehow that's the first animal that popped up in my head :) And since this month the World Cup kicks off in South Africa, I thought I'd make black & white macarons, inspired by both zebras and footballs! Other than the colours, I picked sesame as a flavour as it comes both in black and white variations and I love black sesame anything.

I made the shells using the tried and trusted recipe adapted from Cannelle et Vanille's basic recipe,
colouring half the shells with black colouring (though it didn't really come out very black) and left the other half au naturel. While they were drying, I sprinkled some black sesame seeds on the white shells and white sesame seeds on the dark shells. As for the filling, I whipped up a creme chantilly and flavoured it with black sesame paste (see recipe below).



Macaron Shells (makes about 50-54 shells)
recipe adapted from Cannelle & Vanille

100g egg whites, aged
3g egg white powder
130g almond flour (blitz in food processor to get a finer texture)
160g icing sugar
55g castor sugar
black gel food colouring (according to how dark you want it, I put about 1/4 tsp)
1 tsp black sesame seeds
1 tsp white sesame seeds

Sift icing sugar and processed almond flour together in a bowl. Set aside.

Mix egg whites with egg white powder and whisk in electric mixer until soft peaks on medium high speed.

Lower speed on electric mixer and add in castor sugar slowly while still whisking until fully incorporated. Continue whisking on medium high speed until your egg white meringue mixture reaches stiff peak stage.

Fold in 1/3 of dry ingredients (icing sugar + almond flour) into meringue with a spatula gently. Add in 1/3 more and fold again before mixing in the last 1/3 of the dry ingredients. Make sure all dry ingredients are incorporated into the meringue and start folding mixture more vigorously to form a shiny batter with the consistency of flowing magma or drips down like ribbons when you lift the batter up and let it drip down, and it should slowly disappear into itself without leaving a peak. Be careful not to over mix. If you are adding colour, add it just after all dry ingredients have been incorporated and before working the mixture into a shiny mass.

Line 2 baking trays with non-stick parchment paper (or silpat). You can stick it down with bits of batter in the four corners.

Fill a piping bag fitted with a 1cm round tip with the batter, and pipe even rounds of batter, about 3cm across, onto the tray. If you've mixed the batter properly, it should not spread flatly out too much (overmixed) or leave a peak (undermixed). Sprinkle sesame seeds on top of shells.

Let the batter dry for about 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 170 deg C (convection oven or 180 dec C if conventional oven).

When batter is dry to touch (it forms a slight crust), turn the oven down to 140 deg C (or 150 deg C for conventional oven) and bake shells for 14-15 min, turning the trays halfway through baking.

After baking, lift parchment onto wire rack to let shells cool and gently unmould when cool.

Black Sesame Cream Filling

200ml whipping cream
20g icing sugar
20g black sesame paste (available from japanese grocery stores)

Whisk whipping cream in electric mixer on medium high speed until almost stiff, taking care not to overwhip.

Sift icing sugar over whipped cream and continue whisking to incorporate, until cream is stiff.

Fold in black sesame paste with a spatula until evenly incorporated.

Fill cream into piping bag fitted with 1cm round tip.

Assembly

Match pairs of shells of even size.

Pipe a small mound of cream filling onto one half of each pair of shells.

Top with the other shell.


So there you go, my entry for Mac Attack 8!

Also wanted to share some other pictures I took the other day when the girls came over for a girly sleepover. I was very inspired by the flowers I saw on my way home, and spent wayyyy too much than my usual flower budget on many different types of flowers. Arranged them into several different designs and decorated the house with them. We also went to Borough Market and bought saucisson, cheese and fruits for a pre-dinner snack, accompanied by some lovely Gewurztraminer. I do miss doing flowers, really need to practice more often, though it's not a cheap hobby!

Flowers for Juliana

Jul and I went flower shopping so that I can make her a bouquet for her photoshoot. Had a lot of flowers leftover so made 2 other arrangements.

I had planned for her bouquet to be mostly green with a little bit of pink, but the white roses turned out a lot more white than greenish. The bouquet was made up of lime green hydrangeas, kermit poms, viburnums, lime green argenteas, light pink ranunculus and white roses. Wrapped the stems in pink ribbon and finished it with some pearls for a more elegant look.

Macarons Galore!

Was quite domesticated over the weekend - went to buy flowers to beautify the house and continued experimenting with macarons.

I went to Far East Flora to do a spot of flower shopping after having not gone there since the last events I did in Dec. I wanted to get some nice spring flowers since Mar 20 is supposedly the first day of spring. After looking at the rather dismal selection at Far East, I finally settled on some of my favourite ranunculus in orange and canary yellow tulips. Bought some assorted wild flowers for fillers, and added on some more creamy yellow ranunculus that I came across later. I also bought some alliums, which are those round ball flowers with long thick stalks, but don't have a photo as they're still blooming into their full round glory. Boy do they smell strongly of onions!

Oh, and I also bought a rosemary plant. This is the first time I'm attempting to keep a plant, and I thought what better plants than herbs? My hoarding collecting compulsive nature told me to buy a bunch of different plants (they had lavendar, basil, mint, thyme etc) but I checked myself and decided that I should see how the rosemary works out for me. Well, after 4 days, it's still alive, yay! But I haven't used it yet. I wonder how I should cut the sprigs? If I cut it off at the top will it grow back? Hmm.

Next up, I attempted another batch of macarons. This time, I decided to have fruit-flavoured ganache. I settled on the combinations of strawberry + white chocolate and my fave banana + chocolate, and correspondingly the pink and yellow colours :) Since my last attempt at the Italian meringue method was not very successful, I decided to persevere in my determination to master it. And of course, having bought a small saucepan and candy thermometer to boil sugar syrup, I must make full use of it! My brand new food processor was also finally taken out from its box and made to do some work - first to grind the tant-pour-tant and then to puree the fruit.

Firstly, the macaron shells. I think I overmixed it during the macaronage as the batter spread a little bit more than I liked, hence I ended up with quite big macaron shells. Or it could also be due to my bad estimation per blob of batter. However, my sizing was at least more consistent this time so I had consistently big shells that at least matched each other (important for sandwiching). The batter was also a bit too sweet for my liking, as the italian meringue sure had a lot of sugar syrup. It might also be that I overcooked the syrup. Whatever it is, I'm not sure if it would break the recipe if I lower the sugar content.

After piping the shells and letting them rest to dry, I baked 3 batches of macarons using 3 different oven settings. The last time my shells were undercooked (or too much sugar) which resulted in them sticking to the paper and being annoyingly hard to peel off. This time, I baked at 150C convection for 13 min, 150C convection for 15 min, and 160C conventional for 15 min. For the convection settings, I pre-heated the oven at 180C first before lowering it. I was doing extensive research on the net prior to baking to determine the best settings but alas, oven temperatures and settings are just so temperamental (pardon the pun!) and everyone seemed to have their own little trick like pre-heating at high temps, or sticking a wooden spoon to keep the door ajar etc. I gave up and decided to just experiment. Both the 150C@13 min and 160C@15 min gave me similar results although the 13 min one was a little bit sticky still. at 150C@15 min it was dry, but the shells were a bit burnt. I like the idea of convection setting so I think I'll try 150C@14 min or 140C@15 min next time.

And then the fillings. I followed the recipe for a basic ganache i.e. equal parts of chocolate and cream (but I didn't add butter) and added pureed fruit to it. For the white chocolate though, because of the high cocoa butter content, I used much less cream. The trick is to get a thick enough consistency to pipe when set. While my consistency was more or less ok, the fruit flavourings were not meant to be. Despite adding more fruit than was called for in the recipe I was following, neither the strawberry nor banana came out strongly in the ganaches, with the taste being overwhelmingly chocolate. I think next time I will add fruit flavour to bring out the real fruit. Or not do ganaches. Ahh, so many new permutations.

Since this foray was quite successful, I will go back to the french meringue method to see if that can be made less sweet. And of course experiment with oven temperatures, and new filling flavours. Till the next time (I wonder when that will be?), I leave you with these pretty pictures.