KookyCulinary

I did it! I did it! My macarons have feet!!! Woohoo…….Before u think I’ve gone a little crazy & say what feet? Let me just explain that “feet” are the frilly ruffle that forms at the base of the macaron. It’s a must for macarons or they won’t be macarons at all.

Ever since I first tasted macarons, I have to say it’s probably one of my favorite dessert. ok ok I know I say that a lot but truly over time, while some desserts have drop off the list, macarons have always remain on the top of the list.

Since macarons are so expensive, I’ve always wanted to make them especially when I buy a few precious ones & my toddler gulps them down like candy & not leaving any for mommy!!! :p But I’ve read so much abt the difficulty of making them which is a little discouraging. But lately, there was a macaron craze in one of the food forum that I frequent & looking at all the beautiful creations really pushed me to try it.

Here’s the result:

Not too bad, huh? They are a little flat ‘cos I overmix the batter. Will have to improve on that. But the most impt fact is that they have feet. For a first time, I’m very happy with the result. Hopefully it’s not just beginner’s luck! :pSince I didn’t have any buttercream, I sandwich some Nutella between them. Even DH who never likes desserts gave a thumbs up! : p Thanks to Tamami from Coco&Me for generously sharing her recipe !

Had lots of strawberries in my fridge from the strawberry farm ( see strawberry picking here in my other blog). I guess the smartest thing to do would be to freeze them but I wanted to have fun & see how many things I can make with them. So here’s what I ended up making.

1. Strawberries with chocolate fondue. This is a definite must with strawberries. In fact, my fondue pot only comes out of storage when there’s strawberries in the house.. hehe..

2. Key Lime Pie is one of my favorite dessert. First time I tried it was in Key West, Florida. You can’t go to Key West without trying out their famous key lime pie. Key lime is a very small lime & looks more like the lime I use to eat in Malaysia, unlike the more common bigger-sized Persian lime found in our supermarkets here.

The only reason why I dun make key lime pie more often is that it is very heavy calorie-laden since it uses an entire can of condensed milk!!!! I originally made the strawberry topping as a topping for ice-cream but then I ran out of ice-cream. So I ended up making Key Lime Tart.

Key Lime Tart with Strawberry Topping

3. For this cake, I made a cotton sponge cake using this recipe http://bakingmum.blogspot.com/2006/05/cotton-spongecake.html & sandwiching it with strawberries & whipped cream. Then I attempted to decorate it with whipped cream. Had a tough time with it. This is my first time decorating using whipped cream. Normally I use buttercream. I must say it’s definitely easier decorating with buttercream than whipped cream.

Strawberry cake

4. Lastly, a glass of strawberry smoothie made from strawberry, orange juice, vanilla ice-cream (ya, I finally went out to get some!) & crushed ice. Cheers!!

ok, I’m officially “strawberried-out”. It was fun while it lasted. If my gal wants to go strawberry picking again, I’m definitely freezing the next batch!!! : )

One of the many in my To-Bake list, I finally found the time to make this Strawberry Cream Cheese Jello. I use the recipe from here : http://auntyyochana.blogspot.com/2006/12/heart-jelly_25.html except that I use Graham Crackers for the base. Had a little trouble cutting the jello. Tastewise, it’s pretty interesting. Not quite what I expected. Maybe I was expecting it to taste more cheesecakey. The white layer ended tasting more jello-like than cheesecake-like. But it was fun making it & it sure looks pretty! : )