MacDaddys

I almost forgot to share these photos of the gigantic macarons I made for James. He was definitely spoiled with sweets this past Valentine's Day! I made these for him in addition to the cute chocolates and homemade kit kats :)

These were the biggest macarons I've ever made; almost 4 inches in diameter! Here they are compared to my regular macarons. (You can see more of the cute little bear ones and how I painted the gold design here!)

James loved them and it only took one to satisfy his sweet tooth. It has to! It was the size of a small hamburger lol.

I named these humongous macarons MacDaddys! :)

Left one was Orange Grand Marnier and right one was Earl Grey tea

The happy recipient :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

EEek! These turned out so cute! I love them so much! Wishing everyone a wonderful Valentine's Day. Hope these little cute faces made you as happy as I am :)

Like the New Year's macarons, I used edible Pearl Dust mixed with a little vanilla extract to paint the gold details. I "glued" on the heart sprinkles with a bit of melted white chocolate. As for the faces, I made tiny stencils with cute animal craft punches that I bought in Japan. I then place the stencils onto the macarons and filled them in with edible markers. It's really simple. I will make a tutorial post soon :) You can also draw it free-hand if you like but I like how uniform they all look with the homemade stencils.
 

I also made some heart-shaped ones :)

The whole gang hehe

Close-up of the tiny bear face...too cute!

Party Interrupted

Lunar New Year is this Sunday and my mom and I have been busy preparing for the celebration. However, we are being hit with a major blizzard. Nemo, as it's being called, is going to bring 2-3 feet of snow by tomorrow night. Everyone is pretty much stuck at home and our party tomorrow is cancelled. Hopefully, it won't be too bad and we can celebrate on Sunday instead.

I want to wish everyone a wonderful New Year full of good health, prosperity, and lots of happiness and laughter. And please stay safe if you are in the Northeast! This Nemo is not looking too friendly!

Btw, I'm so excited about these Orange Grand Marnier macarons. I wanted it to taste like an orange creamsicle and it's pretty close! As for the design, I painted the macarons with edible Pearl Dust mixed with a little vanilla extract. I was inspired by the Year of the Snake and started to paint all these crazy wavy lines. Gold shimmers make everything look prettier :)

(I'll have to play with this recipe a couple more times before I can share it. It's always hard when I'm tweaking and making my own recipes. I want to be sure that it works. I don't want to waste anyone's time and money for the ingredients.)