Back in the day when I was a stay at home mom, I used to dream of having my own catering company, I loved the idea of making real, whole food in a category of the industry that is generally fairly mediocre. I got the opportunity when my sister asked me to create platters for lunch and learns and special occasion platters. I got a business licence and a kitchen to rent and off I went.

At this time french macarons were brand new to the market and everyone wanted them but they were ridiculously expensive, my sister asked me to figure out how to make them and include them as part of her platters. There were limited recipes and they weren’t very helpful but eventually I figured it out and they were a big hit. Since then ,they have become more popular and therefore, there are more recipes out there. The flavour combinations are endless and I love how they add colour to a dessert platter or dessert table.

I cannot take credit for this recipe or the technique, it comes from one of my idols, Martha Stewart, who, along with Julia Child are my absolute drop dead faves.  Please click on her name to check out the recipe and have some fun.

I made two flavors shown in the picture, the cream colored one is tonka bean and vanilla buttercream. Tonka bean is like a poor man’s vanilla bean, they actually use it to make imitation vanilla but it is a great flavor in it’s own right and has started to catch the attention of pastry chefs. It’s fragrant and floral and nutty at the same time. You can find them at good spice markets. The pink one is key lime and raspberry, I made a key lime buttercream which is as simple as taking equal parts key lime pudding and butter and whipping them together with a stand or hand mixer on high speed for a minute or two (who knew) it’s a play on a German buttercream. Then you make a ring of buttercream on the flat side of the macaron and fill the inside of the ring with raspberry preserves. Flavor explosion!!!