Home Bakers: Macarons
Colombo has a lot of home bakers, aunties (usually) who make cakes and sweets out of their homes. Very often these homes are ancestral and palatial so it’s not like they’re in it for the money, though, given Sri Lankan fondness for cakes, they must be making money. More than that, these home cooks have just gotten quite good at desserts for family and friends and that’s branched out into business.
The sector isn’t really documented, but at YAMU we’re trying to eat our way through it. Starting with a new (to me) place called Munchkin, which is already pretty popular on Facebook. They make a variety of sweets, but Shruthi ordered some macarons. We’ve been watching Masterchef Australia (compulsively) and they’ve highlighted this difficult to make French sweet. I’ve never had one myself and we were intrigued to see them being made in SL.
As a note, they’re quite expensive here and abroad, going for like 5 pounds each in the UK. They’re still cheaper here, but not really affordable besides for special occasions.
They’re crazy expensive at Rs. 1410 for just 10 macarons, but this is somewhat on par with international prices – macarons are expensive everywhere. I guess that’s what makes them so fashionable. And they were tasty, although the texture wasn’t perfect (apparently this is quite hard to get right – the top should give a light crunch before sinking into the softness of the centre). But they’d make for a trendy little treat when you want to impress the people you have over coffee. And also very nice gifts.(Munchkin | YAMU)
Anyways, as mentioned, Shruthi is tasting her way through some of the home desserts Sri Lankans make. Sita and Monique are obviously coming up, but do comment if you know any other worthy home bakers.
I’m happy to be featured in Echelon magazine’s 40 Under 40 feature, profiling young people who contribute to the economy in some way, mainly in business but also in terms of innovation and thought leadership. It’s an interesting article not just in that I’m in it (mainly for work on indi.ca and 
I won’t add too much commentary, but just read I guess. The youngest Rajapaksa, Rohitha (Chi Chi) has given an amazing interview to the 
In 2009 this strange character appeared on the Sri Lankan Internet scene, getting angry, flaming, trolling whatever. Then he started naming anonymous bloggers, posting comments as people’s kids, nasty stuff, for which I removed him from 
The chutzpah of this government knows no bounds. Every government since Independence has had to balance placating Sinhala nationalists (AKA racists) while at the same time actually running a sensible, inclusive nation that doesn’t send minority citizens, capital and foreign investment fleeing. Basically, they’ve had to pay lip service to nationalists while at the same time trying to run an actual nation. Every government has also generally failed, SWRD being killed by a nationalist monk and everyone after almost losing the country to various rebellions. In that context Mahinda is actually doing a better job by virtue of not being dead and not losing control of the country. But he’s still not doing a good job.
OK, I’ll bite – these are Macarons, not Macaroons. Macaroons are those heavy dollops of biscuit coated in shredded coconut.
1410 for 10 seems cheap! Here in Melbourne it’s $2.50 for 1 for the very best macarons.
you’re right, I spelled it wrong, corrected
Not cheap, considering they’re both are basically meringues, mostly air. Just egg white, sugar and something to add flavour. Macarons have powdered nuts in it and macaroons have more sugar and coconut. What it takes to get it right is temperature control. Initially high, then then a long time in a cool oven and enough time to dry afterwards. Not difficult to make in a bakery, could be done once those large ovens were cooling after they’re switched off.
The only reason I can think of for the price is that they’re delicate once baked and need careful handling. Pavlovas use the same ingredients but wouldn’t cost so much because they could be put together for serving even if they crack or crumble in the handling.
I had to comment… :)
Macarons are 100% almond and they need to be powders and then mixed with icing sugar and egg to make a paste. There after egg white have to beaten along with heated sugar (the temperature of this has to be specific as if it is too hot the macarons will break your teeth and too soft and it has to be chucked in the bin) Once the consistency of the beaten egg whites and heated sugar is reached they are then mixed into the almond/icing sugar paste. This is called macaronage, which is the breaking of the batter. Unlike a souffle or a cake the air has to be beaten out of the macaron batter otherwise you will certainly have cracked tops i.e. mini volcanoes. During this process you have to ensure that the batter isn’t broken too much because then it becomes watery and loses it’s shape when piped and then it just doesn’t bake into a french macaron while in the oven as it merges from one piped shell into another. Secondly, under mixing the batter will ensure that you have lumps and that your macaron will most certainly not have any feet, you will get cookies that are more or less like whoopie pies.
Once a macaron is baked, short of stubbing your finger against it, it’s relatively hardy.
Even the Masterchef judges managed to balls it up :P
By the way, do they sell salted caramel macarons? Those are just unbelievable!
We sell caramel macarons.
By the way, I do hope you weren’t referring to Monique and Sita as aunties!
If you travel around South India, there’s a place called Ganesh Bakery where they sell the best macarons I’ve ever had. Very very random!!(and it ain’t expensive there) http://wikimapia.org/12043921/Ganesh-Bakery
Sita’s cup cakes are pretty money.
Indi, check out the ribbon cake from Maya – freaking amazing!!
Hi Im planning on getting married in SL next year and would love a macaron tower cake- does anyone know where I can get this made? tempted to just order Laudere’ ones and make the tower there- will make it easier if its done there though!
I had to comment… :) Macarons are 100% almond and they need to be powders and then mixed with icing sugar and egg to make a paste. There after egg white have to beaten along with heated sugar (the temperature of this has to be specific as if it is too hot the macarons will break your teeth and too soft and it has to be chucked in the bin) Once the consistency of the beaten egg whites and heated sugar is reached they are then mixed into the almond/icing sugar paste. This is called macaronage, which is the breaking of the batter. Unlike a souffle or a cake the air has to be beaten out of the macaron batter otherwise you will certainly have cracked tops i.e. mini volcanoes. During this process you have to ensure that the batter isn’t broken too much because then it becomes watery and loses it’s shape when piped and then it just doesn’t bake into a french macaron while in the oven as it merges from one piped shell into another. Secondly, under mixing the batter will ensure that you have lumps and that your macaron will most certainly not have any feet, you will get cookies that are more or less like whoopie pies.
Once a macaron is baked, short of stubbing your finger against it, it’s relatively hardy.
I guess I haven’t shown enough respect to the difficult process, and I didn’t know about having to beat the air out of the mixture.
I’ll try some when I manage to overcome my usually extreme thriftiness.