Here's a new macaron cake design that I baked - Kiiroitori from the Rilakkuma family. This Kiiroitori Macaron cake is for a little girl's 2 year old birthday. Thus I added some details like the Number 2 and her name 🥰

Who is Kiiroitori?

"Kiiroitori is a small, yellow bird often seen with Rilakkuma and Korilakkuma." source 

"Kiiroitori used to stay in a birdcage, but can now leave it freely. Every day Kiiroitori scolds Rilakkuma for laying around and fights with playful Korilakkuma for being too mischievous."source

A tip for macaron cakes is to ensure that the shells are completely cooled before removing them from the baking paper. This is because the shells are so large and thus are more prone to baking when you remove them from the oven. Sometimes, I will even take the extra step of cooling the shells completely in the fridge first before handling with them. 

If you are interested in baking this macaron cake, I shared a video tutorial on how to pipe the shells! 

KIIROITORI RILAKKUMA  MACARON CAKE RECIPE
by Sumopocky

Yield
1 Large Macaron Cake (and 1 macaron for decor)
Approximately 6.5 inch width x 6.5 inch length

Ingredients
[For Macaron Shells]
Meringue: 70g of Egg whites + 90g of Castor sugar
80g of Almond flour
80g of Powdered/icing sugar
Food colouring to get the batter colours in Step 4
[For Filling]
Click here to fill with your desired flavour!

Directions
[For Macaron Shells]
1. Make the meringue. In a bowl, beat the egg whites on low speed using an electric mixer until it is white and frothy (approximately 1 minute). Gradually add the sugar 1/4 at a time. When the first addition of sugar has completely dissolved (approximately 1 minute later), increase the mixer speed to medium and add until all the sugar has been incorporated. Continue to beat until stiff peaks form. [Basic Macaron Tutorial Video]
2. Sift the almond flour and icing sugar to the meringue.
3. Begin macaronage. Using a spatula, start the macaronage process by folding and lightly scraping the top of the batter. Continue till the ingredients just start to combine.
4. Then, split the batter and continue to macaronage process, until you get a molten-like mixture and drips down like a ribbon when lifted. Transfer to piping bags.

Colour of Batter	Portion	Piping Tip
White Pink Orange Red Black Yellow	1 tsp 1 tbsp 2 tsp 1 tbsp 1 tbsp Remaining batter	Small Small Small Small Small Medium + Small

5. Pipe out batter onto parchment paper. You can make a template to ensure the shells match (remember to flip the image for the back shell!) Pipe on the other details with the relevant batter colours. Please watch my video for the full demonstration of how to pipe the shell.
6. Let the shells dry in a non humid place or in an air conditioned room. You should be able to touch it gently with the tip of your finger without it sticking.
7. Bake in a preheated oven at 150°C for approximately 25 minutes (keep an eye on the macaron shells, as it depends on your oven and size of the macaron). I placed an opaque oven tray on the top-most shelf in the oven to prevent my macarons from browning.
8. Let shells cool before removing from parchment paper. Then, pipe with filling and chill for at least 3 hours (best to leave overnight). Enjoy!

Mini glass apple with mini donuts!

CINNAMON BAKED DONUTS
(HELLO KITTY DONUTS)
by Sumopocky

Equipment: Donut pan

Servings: about 15 mini donuts or 6 normal donuts

Ingredients
[For Cinnamon Donuts]
167g of All purpose flour
2 tsp of Baking powder
1 tbsp of Cinnamon powder
1 Large egg
100g of Caster sugar
1/4 tsp of Salt
180ml of Fresh milk
3 tbsp of Vegetable oil
2 tsp of Vanilla extract

[For Decoration]
Directions
[For Cinnamon Donuts]
1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. In a bowl, sift the all purpose flour, baking powder, and cinnamon powder. Set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, sugar and salt.
4. Stir in the milk, followed by vegetable oil and vanilla extract.
5. Combine the dry ingredients from Step 2 with Step 4. Mix till well combined.
6. Grease a donut pan with butter and scoop in batter,
7. Bake in oven for 15 - 20 minutes (depending on size of your donut pan. I used mini donut pans for this recipe)

[For Decoration]
1. Melt the white chocolate. Let it cool slightly.
2. Insert 2 almond flakes on top of the donut to make Hello Kitty's ears.
3. Dip the donut in melted white chocolate (ear-side down). Give it a slight shake to spread the chocolate evenly and let the excess drip off.
4. Use the sugar hearts to form a ribbon.
5. Draw on Hello Kitty's face with melted dark chocolate.
6. Use the yellow sugar sprinkle for its nose.
7. Let the donut set in the fridge before serving.

Japan is amazing in so many aspects. But when it comes to making cute things, they are truly unbeatable. As long as they consist of atoms, you can trust the Japanese to make every object imaginable on this earth kawaii.

Gudetama is Sanrio's latest creation - the most adorable, unmotivated and laziest egg ever. He is a wobbly egg who doesn't seem to want to do anything but laze around all day (the term in Singlish is 'nua'.) 

So what makes Gudetama so likeable?

1. He is a reflection of our laziest self.

2. He loves to sleep just as much as you do. 

3. His laid back attitude is relaxing 

GUDETAMA MACARONS 
by Sumopocky

Servings: Approximately 8 macarons

Ingredients:
50g of Dark Chocolate
50ml of Heavy cream

Directions:
4. Make different coloured batters.
- Black: Scoop out 1 tbsp and add black food coloring. Mix well and transfer to piping bag with a small tip.
- Yellow: Scoop out 2 tbsp and add yellow food coloring. Mix well and transfer to piping bag with a small tip.
- White: To the remaining the batter, complete the macaronage and transfer to a piping bag with a medium tip.
5. Pipe batter on parchment paper. With the white batter, pipe out circles and tap baking tray to remove bubbles. Let it dry for about 10 minutes and pipe on yolk with yellow batter. Draw on Gudetama's face with black batter.
6. Let the shells dry for approximately 15 minutes in an air-conditioned room. You should be able to touch it gently with the tip of your finger without it sticking.
7. Bake in a preheated oven at 150°C for approximately 10 - 13 minutes. Let it cool.

[For Dark Chocolate Ganache]
1. Bring heavy cream to a simmer. 
2. Pour heavy cream over chocolate. Let it sit for 1 minute and stir with a whisk till all the chocolate has melted. Let it cool.
3. Transfer the filling to a piping bag and pipe between macaron shells.

Anyway, Project Ladureed was put on hold as I was away in Europe for a month. I bought quite a number of baking goods there as they are relatively cheaper than in Singapore. These ramekins were purchased from Poundland in UK, and yes, as its name suggests, they only cost 1 pound in total. That translates to around SGD$2. Such a good deal! There were cupcake holders, baking trays, piping bags, pipings tips, and other things fathomable for only 1 pound. I would have bought so much more stuff, but I was concerned about fitting them in my luggage. 

"At all time and everywhere he goes he is continuously lazy and relaxed.
He is totally stress-free and also doing things on his own pace."

I added a few spoons of coffee powder to the basic macaron recipe. I'm relieved that the addition of coffee powder did not mess up with the chemistry of the batter - no cracked shells! 

The filling is coffee flavored dark chocolate, a perfect balance of bitterness and sweetness. 

The details for Rilakkuma's features are decorated with royal icing. There's just so much you could achieve with royal icing! 

To be honest, I was initially worried that Rilakumma's face might have been in the wrong shade of brown. It is hard to predict the exact colors of the macaron shells because the colors change when they are baked. Furthermore, they brown very easily. But the Rilakkuma shells turned out perfectly, and I'm really pleased with the results!