Sugar Rush!

Ever had a day when it was high sugar rush?? Mine happened to be on Monday, highest sugar rush when I learnt the M&M-Macarons & Marshmallows! It was the "sweetest" day I would ever want/like/ask!

I attended the Macarons and Marshmallows workshop at BITC. It was mainly for macarons because till today, I still cannot get it right. So I figured since I love this little round thingy so much, I might as well learn the proper way to make it. Unfortunately, it came bundled with marshmallow, so I just had to learn. If you ask me, I'd rather buy a packet of ready-made marshmallows outside than to make it myself. Seriously, I'm not a fan of very sweet stuff (except the premium macarons). What made it worse was, the steps and ingredients required to make the marshmallows are so tedious, so I can forget about making!

Like I mentioned before, attending workshops can really be addictive! During the workshop, I got to know more people. Doris, my coursemate from wedding cake decoration workshop, came with her three other friends-Becky, Sharon & Mary. It's always nice to meet new friends, who shared the same interest in baking. For the past few months, I'd always paired with Doris in the workshops. Somehow, we just had some kind of chemistry, which made us work well together. She is patient & fast, while I'm quick & efficient. She collectts and weighs ingredients in a flash! She's really those fast worker kind. Maybe she's complaining about me internally, but I won't know! Sometimes, I thought she was blur, but I think she knows better and faster than me! Anyway, I'll miss this workshop buddy after all our courses have ended.

Back to marshmallow. These were what we did to have our soft, melt-in-the-mouth marshmallows.


1. Boiling sugar syrup till 110C.
2. Beating boiled syrup with gelatine.
3. Removing from mixer bowl and placed them on silpat.
4. Cover with another silpat and even them out.


5. When it's ready, remove the top silpat and dust icing sugar.
6. Cut them into strips...
7. Then cubes and dust with more icing sugar.
8. Pack them into bags with variety of marshmallows.

This is our handsome chef instructor-Mr Teo. He "blamed" me for posting up his pictures on my blog, and that his friend in Australia knew what he was doing! Then he requested I took a picture of him "selling" the marshmallows and post it up! What an irony! Hahaha...


We only managed to do two flavours of macarons due to time constraint-orange and chocolate. Actually, even as I learn, making macarons also depend very much on your own skills. I must admit, mine wasn't really very good. Some of others' macarons turned out to be PERFECT, others, not so. Mine was so so.


1. Mixing powdered colour and ground almonds.
2. Heating up the meringue (swiss style).
3. Whisking the meringue till soft peak.
4. Folding in the ground almond mix.


5. Piping the batter.
6. My piped batter, waiting to dry.
7. Second round, chocolate batter drying.
8. The one and only chocolate macaron with nice "lace" (or feet). The rest lop-sided.

Our orange macarons were prettier than the chocolate macarons. However, in terms of taste, the chocolate macarons do taste better. According to Mr Teo, the original macarons do not sandwich buttercream together. It was more like custards between one halved macarons. Anyway, the macarons are really sweet, so the best advice is to sandwich something sour in between to neutralise the taste. Since that day I brought back, I've not even had them yet. Guess my sugar rush had been sustainable since then!


I want to thank Becky for sharing her wonderful & delicious homemade museli bars. Yum yum. With the museli bars, it was able to sustain us through lunch! ;)