Lauduree just opened in Singapore this week, and funnily at the same time, Justin and I finally went for our macaron baking class at Oriton School! I think learning to bake together is a fun activity to do as a couple, and Justin is more of a cook than a baker, so it kind of leveled the playing field more.
There was a Groupon for the class at $55.00 each, which is half the price of most macaron baking classes in Singapore, so we figured we'd hit it. The class itself was fun, but boy was booking the class a pain! It's enough to put me off Groupon's for quite a while, but more about that later though, fun stuff first!
All ready to bake!
Our instructor is very candid and helpful, and begins the class with a demo on how to make the macaron shells!
The class started with pre-prepared everything so we don't have to do any measuring. It's recommended to us to sift the almond flour so that the shells will turn out smoother, but we don't do that in the interest of time! What we DO do is mix the egg whites while gradually adding sugar, till we get what they call stiff peaks (my interpretation is that you mix it to the point when you take out the whisk and wobble it, the mixture doesn't move much).
I guess the thing about baking macarons is knowing when to stop. Most importantly, when folding my almond flour into the mixture.
So after the chef's demo, it's our turn to get our hands dirty! Justin and I share the mixture, but fold it in separately with the almond flour, because we want to have different colours for our macarons! I fold mine perfectly according to the chef ^^
We put the final mixture in our piping bags, and pipe! I was going for Winnie the Pooh with these stencils because they're suppose to be idiot proof, but somehow, they end up looking like poor Pooh Bear got stung by an entire bee colony. Yeah, I imagined having better macaron piping skills in my mind -.-
A look around the room makes it apparent that bad piping skills are all me, and actually the success rate is quite high. Oops. Guess baking really is an art for people with patience!
You have to pick the tray up and smack it from the bottom to make the mixture spread out nice and flat, and get the nice round shape BEFORE you dry them. Contrary to popular belief, you don't actually need to have an air-conditioned kitchen to bake macarons, you just have to make sure that you dry them properly for about half an hour before you bake them! (I.e. leave them out alone and not harass them).
We pop them into these gigantic industrial ovens, and about 15 minutes later, voila! We have tons and tons of multi-coloured, freshly baked macaron shells!! I am so tempted to eat them straight away (I do), but it's a mistake because warm macarons get stuck in your teeth. Yuck!
Once again, in the interest of time, the chef demos making the ganache (the cream in between the macaron), so we don't really get any hands on for that - boo! But it's delicious. Salted caramel cream. My favourite!
You know your macarons have been properly baked when they come clean off the sheet! Once they are cool, we do a bit of match-making with our shells so they find a partner that is the same shape and size! This is one of my favourite parts :D
Piping the ganache is easier than piping the shells (duh). My shells look decent, albeit the deformed shaped ones, because they have nice feet! The nice feet (the curly bits at the bottom of each shell) came from the drying before baking :D You have to careful not to pipe too much ganache, if not it'll squeeze out of the sides.
My finished product!!! Not bad considering my disastrous piping skills!
Here are some pretty pictures of more macarons to fill your day and make your tummy growl :)
So overall we really did have a fun time baking macarons. Macarons are such temperamental things, its good to have an actual teacher by your side to guide you when exactly to stop stirring and bother with your questions, which is not something you get from a recipe alone.
About booking the class itself
What a nightmare it was! Firstly, getting a date alone was difficult because of how slow the customer service was. I had to wait three days to get hear a reply for every email I sent, and usually by the time they replied me, the class dates I wanted had been taken. I repeated this over and over for almost two weeks until we finally got a date. How frustrating! They obviously were inadequately unable to cope with the volume of customers they got from Groupon sales.
On the day of our class itself, we made our way down to 7 Magazine Road (somewhere around Robertson Quay) at 2:00pm. Indeed, they had a class there, but it wasn't macaron baking. We were told that actually, the class was at Redhill. Red-frickin-hill. What??? This is why we got the address wrong:
Yeah. 141 Redhill Road was indeed there "in the Groupon", but in their fine print. They never mentioned at all in any of the numerous emails we sent, that oh, the cooking class is not at their main location?
You can see from the contact page on their website here that they only gave the address for 7 Magazine Road.
And you see from the email signature, that 7 Magazine Road was also written in ALL emails, with zero effort to let their customers know that their class wasn't where it seemed to be.
So you can figure out why all signs pointed us to go to the wrong location, and we decided not to go for the class that day because by the time we made it to Redhill, it would be too late. We were pretty angry, but at least they gave us a make up session (they'd better, if not I'd be REALLY pissed), but only a month later. So yeah, I don't think I'll be going for any of their classes any time soon, or recommending their school to anyone.
Sure, macaron baking is fun, but there are plenty of vendors around Singapore that offer the same lesson, so I'd say give Oriton School a miss, and in fact, just be prepared to get the shittiest service ever when you buy Groupons for any kinds of classes anywhere (my friends have told me similar horror stories), because I don't think many small companies are equipped to deal with the sudden volume of customers. But if you're patient, and the money saved is worth it, I guess being prepared for the battle uphill is the best weapon you have!
Hello Jess! Haven't seen this girl in the longest time since. She's like, off busy being beautiful or something hahaha.
Hmm... Can you tell what Jess thinks of it?
Whenever I see foie gras on the menu, I can never resist ordering it. I had the Foie Gras Brioche ($18.00++), also known as, the worst foie gras in Singapore.
I think the picture says it all. This was the soggiest, saddest, foie gras I have ever eaten in my life. It's like they threw it on as an afterthought. Can you see it hiding in the corner of my plate, as if my bread just spontaneously decided to poop it out? I was thoroughly unsatisfied with my meal, and didn't feel full at all after. I really don't understand. Why put something on your menu if you aren't going to do it well?
The fireworks went on and on till the wee hours in the morning! It really was quite a way to welcome in the new year. And then the next day when we woke up, this was what we saw:
Like most people who come to Berlin, the Berlin Wall is a definite stop by for us. We get off the S-bahn (German's MRT) at Bernauer Straße to start our journey! The good thing about Berlin is that even though nothing is open on New Year's Day, they have self-guided tours, kind of like a museum, there are information boards along the path describing the history and events that happened right here, because of the Berlin wall.
We walk so far that day - nearly 10km, which we measured when we went back to our apartment! But it's fun exploring the city, hand in hand with your favourite person on earth :)
