wedding presents

A couple months ago, my little sister got married. Although my sisters are just six and eight years younger than me, I’ve always felt a sort of parental responsibility for them. I approached Savannah’s wedding as I do all their major life events: with a bittersweet mixture of adulation tinged with a tiny bit of sadness– because I can’t believe how quickly they’ve both grown into such terribly beautiful and brilliant young women. Ok, enough corny gushing and on to the presents:

Nick carved some wooden spoons from a piece of dalmata, a hardwood from the Peruvian jungle. I got my hands on a couple yards of linen and made my sister some fancy fabric napkins. The pattern I silk-screened has been waiting around for the perfect application, and this was it. You’ll definitely see more of it soon, so keep your eye out.

Of course, I was asked to contribute some macarons:

I developed a couple of the flavors for these macarons around her wedding colors, but they turned out so tasty, I’ve already got plans to make them again. I love a good lemon macaron, but wanted to come up with something a little different for the yellow-colored treats. When I stumbled across honey powder, I knew it’d be perfect. I added a couple tablespoons to the macaron batter, and mixed up a batch of mascarpone frosting that was sweetened with honey to pipe between the baked cookies. Each macaron sandwich was kissed with a single drop of honey before it was frosted and assembled.

I’ve had the idea for key lime pie macarons ever since I had my first taste of speculoos. If you’re unfamiliar with it, imagine a paste with the consistency of peanut butter and the flavor of graham crackers. It’s an integral part of my recipe because it exactly mimics the flavor of a graham cracker crust. Before I baked a batch of these, I did a quick google search to see if anyone else had the same idea as me– and it seems like a lot of the “key lime pie macarons” out there are really just “key lime macarons”. To make the shells, I added about a half a tablespoon of lime zest to the macaron batter, but didn’t color it, so that the green specks of zest became not only a flavoring agent but a decorative element in the finished cookie. I used the standard recipe for key lime pie filling, but cooked it on the stove top, and strained it like a custard. After it was chilled, it became perfectly thick enough to pipe. Tucked into the center of each macaron, behind a ring of key lime pie filling, I piped a little speculoos. The combination of the softly spiced graham-cracker-like paste and the bright, tart key lime filling was absolutely perfect, and each bite tasted just like a bite of key lime pie. This may be the best thing I’ve ever invented.

Last but not least are the matcha macarons. I’ve made them dozens of times, and they’ll always be one of my favorite flavors. I used a tablespoon of matcha to flavor the shells, and filled them with my standard mascarpone frosting.

As expected, her wedding was incredibly lovely– it was elegant, lively, and so much fun– just like my sister. Of course, I wish for nothing but the most blissful, carefree life for her and her husband. Love you, Nanny-poo.