Macarons take the cake

"They’re adorable,” says Angie Dudley, who blogs about baking at Bakerella.com and recently took a class on how to make the meringue-based treats from France. "I think it’s just the colors and they’re so uniform, they’re so perfect-looking if you do it right.”

The dessert (pronounced MAC-a-RON) comes from France and consists of just a few ingredients, mainly egg white, ground almonds and sugar. They’re often also called macaroons, which is confusing because a macaroon more commonly is a coconut-based sweet.

A proper macaron consists of two rounds of meringue cookies sandwiched together with filling. Flavor? You name it. Macarons generally are treated like a blank canvas that can take on just about any color and flavor.

Sandro Micheli, pastry chef at Adour Alain Ducasse at The St. Regis New York, has long been a fan of the confection, crisp outside, creamy inside. In the last year, he’s noticed the appetite for macarons growing and has been teaching regular macaron classes.

Fans include Jason Wu, the designer who made Michelle Obama’s inaugural gown, who says he’s asked Micheli to create macarons in his signature color of gray to hand out at a June fashion show.

Moment of baking truth: Macarons may be easy on the eye. But are they hard to make?

"Hard, no. Finicky, yes,” says Helene Dujardin, a food stylist and photographer in Charleston, S.C., who taught the macaron class Dudley recently took. "No matter which method you use, French or Italian meringue, there are certain steps that require absolute focus. If the meringue is not stiff enough or too stiff before mixing in the almonds the shells can be too weak or too hollow. If the whole batter is overmixed, the shells can spread too much, crack. It takes a little bit of practice.”

Dujardin, originally from France, began making macarons regularly after moving to the United States about a decade ago and missing the treats.

Dudley, who lives in the Atlanta area, discovered macarons after coming across pictures of them on the Web. That’s not surprising since this trend seems to have gotten a lot of its oomph from bloggers, with numerous posts and websites as well as "mac” backing sessions on Twitter.

"They are the perfect item for blogging,” Dujardin, who blogs at Tartelette.com, said in an e-mail. "You can teach your readers something, express your process, frustrations and joys included, and mac-driven emotions are perfect writing materials — trust me!”

Three years ago when Paulette Koumetz opened a macaron shop in Beverly Hills, the French treat took a bit of explaining — was it a cookie? Was it a cake?

But she was confident macarons would win over American palates, and she was right.

"What is wonderful here is that American people are very open. When they have something new they want to try it,” she says. She has since opened a second "Paulette” store in San Francisco.

Visual appeal is a big part of macaron madness. The colorful confections make for spectacular displays whether built up into pyramids or other shapes or simply stacked neatly in a glass baker’s case.

"We have all those colors, all those beautiful little, round cakes,” Koumetz says. "They are very good.”

Dudley specializes in cake pops, cupcake-like confections on sticks — she’s got a book about them, titled simply enough "Cake Pops,” coming out this fall. After taking McSweeney’s class, she tried her hand at making macaron pops, they worked pretty well, though she feels she’s got work to do before she masters macarons.

In the race for culinary charmer, will macarons take the cake?

"I don’t think it’s a question of which one is more popular,” says Dujardin. "Some of us have the mac vibe, some have the cupcake one. Some of us have both.”

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Online:

Macaron baking site: http://mactweets.blogspot.com/

Dujardin’s blog: http://mytartelette.com

Dudley’s blog: http://www.bakerella.com