Etude house CC Cream Review

Well... I havent posted in here since forever havent I..

I have gotten over making macarons and have decided to just write about reviews for .. C O S M E T I C S!

Isnt it exciting? Yes.

I just came back from Korea 3 weeks ago and as we all know, Korea is the land of SKINCARE.

So.. I - naturally, stocked up on lots of skincare products that were cheap and so far ... works so good!

One product that I want to rave about today is the Etude House CC Cream. 

It is roughly  $15 (AUD) and its like a makeup base.. in other words Primer.

Its whitening to make your skin a bit whiter ( not too white!) so that your skin looks clear and evenly toned when you apply your foundation. It's a lovely primer as it smoothly lets your foundation glide on and sits in place.. AND lasts the wholeeeeeeeeeeeeee day 

On top of that it is also a sunscreen, PLUS ( it gets better and better doesnt it?) it is also anti-wrinkle!! 

When i first used the product i was amazed... and just to make sure that it wasnt like a one time thing, I still love it 3 weeks later! 

Highly recommend it!!

I'll show u pictures..   for now.. toodaloo!

Angie x

today.

It is so windy today that it's insanneeee!!!! Apparently the winds will reach til about 100km/h.. can you believe that!! Its quite often though, the past week there has been days when the wind was crazZYYYYyyy...

Anyways, i'm writing in here because maybe i feel like resurecting my abandoned macaron page? or is it because i just feel i want to rave about my new purchase. hahaha

I bought this nail polish stamper and Oh my Gawwdd its amazinggggggggg.. i cant wait to use it..anyways i dont have much to say 

ta. x

Difference between Macaroons and Macarons

I remember when I first started being interested in making Macarons, I would get confused at the spelling and the pronunciation of each. Only after a while that i realised, Macarons and Macaroons were two entirely different types of dessert!!

Here are my findings:

a macarOOn

from: 

a macaron

Donna Hays Macaron mixture. Fail.

After two attempts or maybe three of failed Macarons, i was thinking maybe its the ingredients that was the problem (http://macaronsecrets.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/the-first-macarons.html) here is my first attempt. have a look.. i laughed... hehe

so i went out to the supermarket and found this:

i got this picture off google as i did not take a photo of the box .. so no i didnt make those perfect ones in the picture haha 

it was cool because there was an egg mixture in there already, meaning...nothing could go wrong this time right?? WRONG

I followed the packet instructions very throughly and carefully.. and here are the pictures:

looks pretty good so far... 

then i piped them in the tray, notice how i buttered the tray so that it wont stick. i thought it was genius!!

came out of the oven, and i see the feet around them... looks pretty good.. i was excited!! 

they didnt stick because of my genius butter the pan before technique.. but they were hard and crunchy. like crunchy cookies.. 

i filled the filling anyway... and they looked like this: 

and this is what turned out when i piped them onto a tray..  it cracked. 

in conclusion... maybe its not the mixture..maybe its the maker. ITS ME i did something wrong.. 

so i thought i would try again.. a few days later.. (post to come later)

OH YEAH.

these macarons, the bin ate majority of it. LUCKY BIN!

The first Macarons...

Im assuming... that many macaron attempts have failed, they may have looked like biscuits or flat puffy cakes, whatever you want to call it.

mine were the worst... they were stuck to the pan that it couldnt even come off without it crumbling...  

behold... the pictures : 

lovely arent they?? ( i also see a bump in the middle in the uncooked batter lol)

so i thought maybe it was the pan that was the problem, so i piped them on baking paper on trays.... 

i know they are SOOOOOO round arent they? (NOT!) 

and they turned out like this when i took them out of the oven:

they look like moon rock cakes . hahaha

oh and here are some more pictures just for the fun of it:

i had to use a spoon to unstick it from the pan. lol hahaha 

anyways, so if u ever wondered what happened to these.... 

the bin had a good time devouring it!! hahahahaha 

keep trying people, you will get there!!!!!!!!  im proof :)

Green Tea Macarons

So... Many people have since become fascinated and a fanatic of the green tea flavour, whether it be ice cream, yoghurt or sponge cakes... I myself, personally, never saw the hype about green tea until I had an iced green tea from MSM, a Korean cafe store based in Straithfield, Sydney. It was love at first sip... I've experimented these from scratch .. Green tea Macarons and they came out pretty gooddddddd......

Makes approx 20

Ingredients for shell
100g Ground Almonds
100g icing sugar
100g caster sugar
7g green tea powder
37.5ml water
2 egg whites

Ingredients for filling:
100g white chocolate
1 teaspoon greentea powder
100ml pouring cream
25g butter

The shells:
1, mix ground almonds, icing sugar together and sift in a bowl (make sure they are fine).
2, beat 1 egg white with a beater on high and while that is beating heat saucepan with the water and caster sugar until a syrup forms. Then carefully pour this syrup into the beater In a thin line and continue to beat. Beat until its a shiny meringue then turn off beater. 
3, mix the remaining egg white into the dry ingredients (ground almond and icing sugar) until combined.. add green tea powder and mix well
4, use a flexible spatula and take 1/3 of the meringue and mix with the ingredients. Then slowly fold and add the rest of the meringue. It should be combined and almost runny in texture. 
5, line flat baking trays with baking paper 
6, fill a piping bag with the batter mixture and pipe approximately 3cm circles onto the baking paper- leave enough space in between each as it does expand a little in the oven. Sprinkle left over ground almond/hazelnut on top of shells for presentation.
7, preheat oven to 150degrees Celsius
8, wait 30 minutes for the shell of the Macaron to set. Then place in oven for 15 minutes. 

The filling:
1, heat pouring cream in saucepan til warm
2, pour heated cream on white chocolate to melt and mix.
3, mix in butter till well blended
4, mix in green tea powder to well blended
5, place in fridge to set and but in piping bags


The Macarons:
1, after shells are cooled from the oven, match up shells with similar size together.
2, pipe one of the two matching shells with the cream and sandwich together. Repeat for all the shells.
3, place macarons in the refridgerator to set for an hour or until the filling sets.  


You can adjust the greentea powder according to taste, of course, the more powder there is the more greentea flavour and slight bitterness there is.. 
experiment my bakers!!! lol

Blue Curacao Macarons

These were the first Macarons I made and actually SUCCEEDED the look and feel of a macaron. lol

what i would do differently now.. looking back is double the colouring and mix the cream to become more solid... or maybe even refridgerating them for a bit longer... these were a bit mushy but i think it was due to the cream being too liquid that made the shells soft....... :(

the  shell colouring was also a bit too light. lolll so my advice.. pour that colour in there!!!!!! 

Shells:

100g almond meal

100g caster sugar

100g icing sugar

37.5 ml water

2 egg whites

blue food dye colouring

Curacao Cream:

100ml lukewarm milk

1 egg yolk

10g cornflour

25g caster sugar

2 tablespoons curacao liquor

The shells:
1, mix ground almonds, icing sugar together and sift in a bowl (make sure they are fine). The residual left over can be used to sprinkle the Macaron shells later.
2, beat 1 egg white with a beater on high and while that is beating heat saucepan with the water and caster sugar until a syrup forms. Then carefully pour this syrup into the beater In a thin line and continue to beat. Beat until its a shiny meringue then turn off beater. 
3, mix the remaining egg white into the dry ingredients (ground almond and icing sugar) until combined.. add blue colouring and mix well
4, use a flexible spatula and take 1/3 of the meringue and mix with the ingredients. Then slowly fold and add the rest of the meringue. It should be combined and almost runny in texture. 
5, line flat baking trays with baking paper 
6, fill a piping bag with the batter mixture and pipe approximately 3cm circles onto the baking paper- leave enough space in between each as it does expand a little in the oven. Sprinkle left over ground almond/hazelnut on top of shells for presentation.
7, preheat oven to 150degrees Celsius
8, wait 30 minutes for the shell of the Macaron to set. Then place in oven for 15minutes. 

The Curacao cream:

1, mix cornflour and caster sugar together, then add egg yolk and beat until combined. pour in luke warm milk.

2,transfer mixture into saucepan and cook, stirring constantly (or the mixture will stick to the pan) until thickens. add the curacao liquor 

3,pour cream into bowl and let it cool or set in refrigerator til cooled.

The Macarons:
1, after shells are cooled from the oven, match up shells with similar size together.
2, spread one of the two matching shells with the cream and sandwich together. Repeat for all the shells.
3, place macarons in the refridgerator to set for an hour or until the cream sets.