bakesbyfayma

[bakesbyfayma]

The grand Finale: Pink Shells, Buttercream Dreams & Swiss Meringue Success ⋆˚ 𝜗𝜚˚⋆

Hey all, welcome to or welcome back to blog. If you're new you might want to backpaddle and if you're a loyal follower, I'm sure you're just as excited as I am to see that I'm at the end of the road on my journey to baking the perfect macarons.

After weeks of practice, a few flat disasters, some cracked shells, and many sticky kitchen benches, I finally did it—my final batch of pink macarons came out beautiful, glossy, and full of personality. Not only did they look good, but they tasted amazing too. This last batch felt like a celebration of everything I’ve learned about patience, precision, and persistence in the world of baking.

Before I dive into the process, here's a quick summary of what I learned along the way:

Stiff peaks are everything: In the French method, I kept struggling to get stable meringue. I learned that even a tiny drop of yolk or a damp bowl can ruin the whip.

Macaronage is a gentle art: Overmixing deflates everything. Undermixing leads to lumpy shells. I learned to fold slowly, check the flow (like lava!), and stop as soon as I could make a figure-8 with the batter.

Let them rest: I used to rush this, but I now understand that resting the piped shells is key to getting feet.

Oven matters: I experimented with different rack levels and finally found the sweet spot (middle shelf, 150°C, fan off).

🧁 Why I Switched to the Swiss Method

After struggling with the French meringue, I decided to try the Swiss method, where the egg whites and sugar are gently heated over a water bath before whipping. It turned out to be a game-changer. The meringue was glossier, more stable, and gave me more control during folding.

So after all this reflecting, experimenting with different methods and hacks, and finally feeling confident enough to finish here, I thought I would switch up my format and write this out like a true recipe!! 🩷

🍓 The Final Batch: Pink Shells & Vanilla Buttercream

Here’s what I used:

Macaron Shells

100g egg whites

100g caster sugar

100g icing sugar

100g almond meal (sifted 3x!)

Rose pink gel food colouring

Vanilla Buttercream

100g unsalted butter (room temp)

150g icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp milk (optional, for smoothness)

🍳 How I Did It

1. Prep

Cleaned all bowls with vinegar to remove grease. Sifted the almond meal and icing sugar multiple times for that ultra-smooth texture.

2. Swiss Meringue

Gently whisked egg whites and sugar over simmering water until the sugar dissolved (~55°C), then beat to stiff, glossy peaks. Added food colouring near the end.

3. Macaronage

Folded the dry mix into the meringue in thirds. Stopped when the batter flowed like thick lava and I could draw a clean figure-8.

4. Piping + Resting

Piped even circles using a template under baking paper. Let them rest until they formed a skin—about 45 minutes.

5. Bake Time

Baked at 150°C (no fan) for 15 minutes on the middle rack. Every single shell had feet. I nearly screamed with joy.

for the buttercream filling I whipped butter and icing sugar together until light and fluffy, added vanilla for flavour, and a splash of milk for smoothness. I piped a generous swirl onto half the shells and sandwiched them with their partners.

The pink was soft and elegant, the texture was crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside, and the buttercream was better than I expected. My siblings didn't have any problem gobbling them all up at least. These macarons were the perfect finish line to this learning journey.

Making these macarons wasn’t just about baking. it was about learning how to stay calm, try again, and trust the process. I now understand why people say macarons are temperamental. They don’t just test your technique—they test your mindset.

Would I bake them again? Absolutely. But next time, maybe I’ll go purple… or try a lemon curd filling.

💌 Thanks for following along!

If you’re struggling with macarons, don’t give up. Bookmark this, take a break, then try again. You’ll get there—one fold, one shell, one batch at a time.

[bakesbyfayma]

Trying Again & hopefully better this time! 😅

Hello peoples, if you're coming from my previous post: welcome back, I'm glad you're sticking around, and if you're new here: Welcome!!

We're officially two weeks into my macaron journey, and like I said in my last post, I have been humbled. I did my initial research and thought I was ready, but of course, I wasn't. Upon my first failure, I have identified that meringues take work, no matter what method you're using. I also spoke to my food tech teacher and sought out Reddit posts on the macaron community and took some notes (side note: Reddit really amazes me because if you think you have some sort of niche interest, just search it up and you'll find a whole community for it)

Use clean, dry tools and room temp egg whites.

Whip with increasing speed and patience.

Add sugar gradually.

Test peaks with your whisk.

Consider environment and ingredients.

Learn from each attempt!

With this new mindset, I decided that I'm ready to try again. With a new recipe. Not to diss the one that I started with, but the portions were quite large and I needed to conserve my ingredients. I also just generally felt like I needed to start smaller. So onto the second attempt!

I will say that I was much more efficient with the prep this time around which is my most hated process of baking besides the clean up.

Quickly moving onto the meringue, I feel that I'm automatically put at a disadvantage as most, if not all videos and recipes I've seen require a stand mixer and I've been using a handmixer all this time. Obviously, it would be ridiculous to ask my mum to buy a whole new mixer just for this, so I've been pushing through, even if my arm is slowly dying. I tried to match the pace of what a stand mixer would have as closely as I could and took more time, putting on my playlist and pretending that this isn't a whole workout.

I found that this time around was a lot smoother and slowly but surely, I reached stiff peaks!! Now it wasn't the most smooth, effortless meringue, more so moderately firm peaks, but I was feeling triumphant nonetheless.

Moving onto the folding---the long, tedious process of folding. I was, once again, feeling quite tired at this point with all the arm work I was doing, but knew that it would all be worth it in the end when I had my first batch done. I stuck it all into the pipe, which I'm not sure if this is just a skill issue from me, was messier than you'd think. And then it was piping time. With my baking sheet, I tried to fill the circles as perfectly as possible and with a smaller batch this time around, there were some that were slightly smaller than others. Unfortunately my new issue was the bubbles that didn't seem to want to go away. I tried firmly tapping my tray against the counter and it didn't do much. So yay, I had officially piped my first batch of macarons and had them ready to go in the oven, but they have bubbles, which is just great.

To no ones surprise, the bubbles led to some cracking when the macarons officially came out of the oven. I was anxious, constantly checking on them every three minutes, praying, hoping I would have something for show. And sure, they aren't the best, they're mediocre. But they're done and I did them. 💌

[bakesbyfayma]

First Attempt...And First Failure ˚ ༘ ೀ⋆｡˚

If this found you after my first post: Welcome back! If this is your first time seeing me: Welcome!!

I've officially started my journey baking macarons. My first batch I wanted to start with simple, plain white vanilla macarons but safe to say, it was anything but simple.

I went in with so much confidence and so much excitement like I do with all my projects, but I was quickly humbled once I realized how grueling this process was going to be. First of all, I didn't take how much precision you need with this dessert very seriously but honestly, it's a very tedious process.

Sift this 3 times, fold that 20 times, mix this a billion times over. It was all quite tiring if I'm being honest and that's why coming into my first complication on my first run was anything but delightful. After I had taken almost an hour just to prepare my sugars and flours, it was time to begin the meringue which I have never, ever attempted. I did the French method because that's the one that people reccommend as beginner friendly, but if there's a word for someone less than a beginner, it should be applied to me, because I was strugglingggg!!

No matter what I did, I wasn't reaching stiff peaks, and the longer I tried to recover it, the more it seemed like a lost cause. I added more cream of tartar, I mixed for an extra 5, 10, 15 minutes. I was absolutely stumped and google was giving a ton of reasons on why my meringue wouldn't stiffen but little to no suggestions on how I can fix it. Eventually, probably against my better judgment, decided to continue on, hoping that, I don't know, a miracle would happen and it would mould just fine when mixed with other ingredients. I was quite wrong. The mixture was so liquidy, that even mixed with the flour, it turned into a weird chunky mess. I was at a complete loss and finally at 3am, surrounded by flour and egg shells, and dirty dishes, I called it quits.

I'm still confused as to why this could have happened. It felt like I followed the tutorial perfectly, although I did find it a bit overwhelming for a beginner. Based on my research, it could be because of the eggs I used, the cleanliness of my mixer, the amount of time that I mixed for, quite literally anything.

While this is not how I expected things to go at all, it's not the end of the world and with the planning that I've done, I know that I can bounce back from this. Through this reflection, I really have gained an understanding and will never underestimate the fragile art that is baking macarons.

[bakesbyfayma]

Introduction˚⋆𐙚｡.ᡣ𐭩˚

Hi!! I'm not really sure how to start this or what I'm doing really but I just wanted to introduce myself to Tumblr and hopefully reach the baking community or whatever community enjoys watching people's journeys creating sweet treats. My name is Fayma, and I'm a teen baker whose just trying to develop my skills.

My first project I'm going to be working on is macarons, which I know I know, I'm in for a lot here, but I'm excited and ready to learn, especially on a new platform. I'm planning on posting once a week, sharing and reflecting on my progress every post, and whatever happens, we're in it together. I can't wait until my next week. Bye all!! 💌