Red Velvet Macarons

Nom nom nom. That is probably the best way to describe these. They. Are. So. Good. (hmm... just felt like Christian Grey... awkward) Anyway. These were experimental macarons. I had an idea, executed said idea, and resulted in beautiful, pillowy, deliciousness.

I guess I can blame my husband for the invention of these. He gets orders from his work mates for my cooking, and for this particular week, he'd been telling me cake pops were what the boys wanted. Until Thursday night when I was confirming it and he was just like no, macarons. Damn husbands. But it did result in these! Red Velvet macarons will definitely be on the menu when I'm all sorted. They are to die for. :)

Caramel Popcorn Cupcakes

I love how many different types of cupcake cases there are now. The options are endless as to what you can do with them. I made these caramel popcorn cupcakes. I adjusted a basic butter cake recipe and added caramel to it. Once cooked they got another dollop of caramel, followed by a variation of Zumbo's popcorn macaron filling and then finally topped with white mini marshmallows and yellow caster sugar.

Baby Shower Cake Pops and Pink & Purple Cupcakes

There's not much of a story here, I was asked by a gorgeous friend if I could help out with some sweets for a baby shower. I made 24 "baby" cake pops, complete with little bonnets and dummies, and, since it was a pink and purple themed baby shower, and I was trying out some new paper Eskimo cups, sent her off with 9 choc raspberry cupcakes as well :)

THE MACARON

At work I was asked if I could make a giant macaron. I accepted that challenge. The above macaron is about 6inches, both are vanilla buttercream with caramel drizzle. The bottom was my second attempt, and as you can see I've added more filling to give it some more height. Changed the colour a little as well, so it was a bit warmer. It also ended up being closer to 8inches.

They really weren't that hard to make. If you can make normal macarons, then you can make these. Its exactly the same piping process, just pipe the one circle for longer :)

Painted Cookies

Was feeling creative the other week. I'd always admired these from afar, certain that they would be much too complicated for me to attempt.

Not so!! Although time consuming, it was delightfully therapeutic to sit there and paint royal icing flowers. Plus they look absolutely stunning. Our Paper Eskimo rep gave us some of their straws to try, so I colour matched my cookies to the straws. Will definitely be doing these again :)

All Things Giant

Seems that the time is here for giant things. I'm enjoying making giant cupcakes and out did myself with giant macarons! My first attempt at giant cupcakes is the above, its a raspberry cake with a blue candy shell and vanilla buttercream. Ended up being my mums birthday cake.

The second cupcake (below) was for fun. It is very, very, very rich. A dense, moist chocolate mud cake wrapped in raspberry buttercream, placed in a dark chocolate case. OMG. The husband took this to work as we just wouldn't have been able to eat it all!

Down the Rabbit Hole

I was lucky enough to be asked to make some macarons for a Mad Hatter themed 21st birthday party. I love Alice in Wonderland, so I jumped at the chance to contribute.

The birthday girl requested 3 types of macarons, red with black raspberry filling, light pink with white vanilla and blue salted caramel. Aside from the black raspberry (it tasted great according to my taste testers, but I just couldn't get around that the black colour was actually raspberry, too weird for me) I think that they turned out wonderfully, and tied in well with the rest of the party food (bottom pic)

Would love to do more themed macarons, they were heaps of fun :)

Moving Right Along

I've been absent, again, for quite a while. Sorry!

Stepped back from things for a little bit, to re-assess where I want to be going, what I want to be doing..... Plus its winter, so I've been hibernating :)

So, I've come to the conclusion that Sweetness Is will be an up and running business by October, as long as it all gets approved.

What does this mean for my blog? It means mostly that there probably wont be as many recipes, as I can't give away all my secrets. It does mean though that you'll be sharing in my adventures as I travel down the road of setting myself up. I'll still be sharing all the orders I do and any markets I attend. I'll still randomly post things just to make you laugh.

Thanks for taking the time to check out Sweetness Is <3