Secrets Revealed

As I promised, now I post some photos about my newest project.... or at least a part of it:

This will be the counter of my Salon de Thé (Tea room). It was inspired by Versailles, Petit Trianon, Marie Antoinette and the famous French confectionary Ladurée. The counter is white marble with antique gold ornaments, and it took more than two weeks to put together. The base is simple wood covered with several layers of gesso (sanded accurately after every layer) and white paint. Making the marble effect took long days, but I think it worth. The whole floor will be covered with marble in the tea room, so I try do not imagine how long will it take to make....This is how it started:



The cakes are not the final ones (not all of them), I have to make more French pastries to fill in the counter, though the pink "Libertine cakes" were made to this project.

From now on I will post photos about the improvement on a regular basis.

I hope you will enjoy this little journey.

See you soon,

Orsi







Macaron Topiaries - finished

I finished the 2 other macaron topiaries I wanted to make yesterday: a lemon-green apple one and an orange-pistachio one. It was pretty exhausting to make, so it is fantastic I was able to finish and can move on less time consuming items, such as little cake boxes (no photo yet) and some meat products.

The 2 new topiaries:

The collection of four macaron topiaries:





Macaron Towers and Topiaries

After I spent days with making the needed amount of macarons, I made two macaron towers and two topiaries on the weekend. The original topiaries were made by the Ladurée, but I added my own ideas to it, and decorated them with tiny leaves and used greens and pink/deep purple to incarnate little trees. If I will have time to make 70 more macarons, I will make a little "orange tree" too.
So, here are the photos:

200 macarons in bowls

(clockvise from the pink: rose, green apple, blackcurrant,

pistachio and liquorice)



Pistachio-blackcurrent macaron tower

(contains 66 macarons and 9 roses)

Rose-liquorice macaron tower

(contains 67 macarons and 10 roses)

Macaron topiaries

(blackcurrant-green apple-pistachio on the left

and

green apple-rose on the right)



The bottom of the topiary is a simple cake, the top is covered with marzipan, the side is covered with boudoir biscuits to simbolize the wooden planting pot, the topiary is a large "empty" ball, decorated with macarons and leaves.

Tomorrow I move on to salty things....perhaps ;)

Macarons again

I FINISHED!!! I made 200 macarons (400 half macarons) within 4 days and without molds. 200 macarons fit in my palm nicely - it is hard to believe that I spent about 24 hours to make them. I have great plans in my head, and I'm happy that this phase is ready and I can move forward :)
I will come back soon to reveal more!

Macarons, macarons and more macarons

I've been an obsessed macaron fan since I watched the Marie Antoinette - The Journey film. I had waited for long months to taste the first macaron, and repeat this "tasting" anytime I have the opportunity. (I can die happily with the taste of a macaron in my mouth...)
We can debate which is the best, I personally vote the Ladurée macarons. I especially like the salted caramel one.
I tasted many macarons in Hungary, but I didn't find any which was at least half as good as the Ladurée ones.
I plan to make my own miniature patissérie, which will be loaded with macaron creations: towers and topiaries and Ispahans, etc., so here are some mini Ladurée beauties wich will decorate my small patissérie.

Real Ladurée macarons

(chocolate, pistacchio, raspberry, lemon, coffee, chocolate and praline)

Raspberry-pistacchio macaron tower

Chocolate-praline-caramel macaron tower



Cake stand with fancy petite fours

"Libertine" cake with a mini St. Honoré cake