The Occasion
H’’s birthday was this past weekend, but he didn”t want me slaving away in the kitchen to make him a birthday cake, insisting that I get some much needed rest during the New Year weekend because I”d been sleeping poorly the past 2 weeks.

Fortunately, I”d made a batch of macaron on New Year’’s eve on a whim and decided to assemble a macaron tower for him instead! It would be experimental, but at least he would have some sort of a birthday dessert. Plus it would be way grander than any birthday cake if it worked out.

The Experiment
I”d always wanted to make a macaron croquembouche, but was concerned about a few things.

1. What to use for the cone base
2. How to attach the macarons to the cone
3. Whether the macarons would stay in place, given the weight of the fillings
4. Whether the macaron fillings would turn soft and melt before all the macarons had been attached

The Results
Concern #1 was easily resolved with a homemade cardboard cone covered with baking parchment paper. I”d originally considered using a styrofoam cone, but had no idea where to buy one.

I decided to go with caramel as the “glue” since traditional cream puff croquembouches are so constructed. I started attaching the macarons at the bottom and was really delighted when the 1st layer appeared to stick on to the cone really well. What I hadn”t counted on was the caramel not hardening well.

As it turned out, concern #3 was also a valid one, especially since the macarons in the upper layers began to slide downwards, resting on the bottom layers when the caramel started to soften, possibly from the condensation from the macarons, which had been refridgerated prior to being attached to the cone, or perhaps from a poorly made caramel.

Despite the air-conditioning being turned on, the macaron fillings also started to melt somewhat. This was particularly true of the buttercream fillings. I had originally contemplated filling the macarons with a simple jam filling to overcome the melting issue, but didn”t want to spend hours making the shells, only to end up with overly-sweet macarons that would then be unpleasant to eat.

And so it was that H’’s birthday croquembouche stayed intact for a grand total of 10 minutes before I decided to take everything down, mainly because the assembled croquembouche was too tall to fit into my fridge and the bottom layers were getting squashed from the weight of the other layers sliding down and resting on them. I was miffed that many of my painstakingly-made macarons were now either somewhat squashed, smeared with sticky, non-hardened caramel on one side or had part of their delicate outer shells left hanging on the cone when I attempted to remove them. Fortunately, they still tasted good and H didn”t mind in the tiniest bit, especially since his favourite chocolate ones had remained intact.

Experiments to come
I”m determined to try this again some other time and I”ve got some other ideas on how to better attach the macarons to the cone (reducing the amount of macaron filling being one of them and possibly using only ganache), but I”d love to hear from you if you”ve got any suggestions on how to solve the problems I encountered!

I hope all of you had a lovely Christmas!

This year, H and I had a small Christmas Eve dinner party with my family. Learning from the experience we had last Christmas, we went with a bone-in store-bought traditional Christmas ham, a large roasted chicken (instead of a huge turkey which would have barely been touched and probably gone into a pot of rice porridge on Christmas day), salami and hawaiian pizza (yes, I know, not exactly a Christmasy sort of dish, but for some reason, my sister really wanted this), homemade Schwaebisher Kartoffelsalat (a German potato salad), tossed greens and a homemade apple pie.

H also made a huge pot of Gluhwein (mulled wine) with a bag of Gluhwein spices sent to us from H’’s sister (thank you, N and H!) by way of his mum who was here for a visit a short while ago.

Back home in Germany, this aromatic hot wine would be enjoyed in the winter evenings with our familly, along with a huge assortment of Christmas cookies (Plaetzchen). These Christmas cookies would be lovingly baked in the weeks leading up to Christmas; believe me when I say it takes huge restraint (mostly on H’’s part!) to resist all the delicious cookies just so there would be some left by Christmas day!

Sadly, cookies, of the Christmas-sort or otherwise, don”t keep very well in our humid Asian climate, so I went with just one type to go with the Gluhwein - Vanillekipferl. These crescent-shaped cookies are a quintessential part (in my opinion, anyway) of any Christmas Plaetzchen platter and are made with ground almonds, butter, flour, sugar, egg yolks and scrappings from a vanilla bean.

I used the recipe here from Nicky of Delicious Days. The end result was a lovely crumbly, almond-ny, buttery cookie. I would have preferred them to be a little less crumbly and this would probably have been the case if we lived in a dry climate and left the cookies to sit for a few days in a container. Still, H enjoyed them immensely (can”t exactly say the same for the rest of my family), which was the most important part for me!

I also finally got round to assembling the 3D gingerbread Christmas tree as a decorative piece for the dinner. I found that drying the humidity-softened decorated cookies in the oven does help. The dried decorated Christmas ornament cookies are now happily sitting in a container with a couple bags of desiccant. I wonder how long they”ll keep…

My next project is a macaron croquembouche, but before that, I intend to give myself a nice long rest to recover from the crazy hectic time that was Christmas.

Have a wonderful year ahead, everyone!

With a full-time job, it’’s been a little difficult keeping to my Christmas baking schedule. But I knew that I”d definitely be baking and decorating Christmas-themed gingerbread cookies this year, having given them a miss last Christmas.

Plus, I”d been longing to make these edible Christmas tree ornaments since I saw the beautiful designs on Joycelyn’’s blog last year.

These gingerbread cookies were baked and decorated over the course of 2 work day evenings and this past weekend. The challenge with cookie decorating in humid Singapore is, as I”d already blogged about previously, that the cookies turn soft very quickly while the icing air-dries.

I had high hopes for these cookies since they remained really crisp, even after 2 days in an air-tight container. But wet December weather finally decided to reappear right after I”d laid down the first layer of royal icing; the poor cookies didn”t stand a chance against the damp, although I have to admit that the royal icing did dry beautifully.

Still, I managed to capture a few decent shots of the ornaments and Christmas tree this morning despite the afternoon rain. I”m particularly happy with how the Christmas tree cookie turned out, given that this is the first time I”ve worked with sprinkles and sanding sugar.

Many thanks go out to Joycelyn for sharing generously sharing her gorgeous decorated cookie design ideas!

These gingerbread kids are a slight variation of the ones I made 2 years ago. There’’s still a 3D gingerbread tree waiting to be assembled, but there just isn”t enough time on the weekend to do everything I”d planned. And then there are the vanillekipferl to be baked. Things aren”t looking too great for the macaron “croquembouche” at the moment.

But I”m not complaining; I”m really pleased with what has been accomplished in the kitchen this weekend despite the weather and everything else that’’s going on this time of year. With that, I leave you with a photograph of my favourite design of the lot.

Happy holiday baking, everyone!