If a dessert is an item to savour, meet the bakers turning the macaron into a treat for the eyes, too
Aishwarya Sinkar of Viola Patisserie will customise the painting to match an occasion
Of all the French desserts, getting a macaron right is considered the toughest job ever. Now imagine, not just getting them right, but also drawing intricate designs on them by hand! City bakers with a keen artistic knack have started hand-painting macarons, making them an easy-to-pick gifting option.
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Custom-painted macarons by Akruthi Kataria Sureka of Anaya by Akruthi
Charges: Rs 40 - Rs 50 per macaron
Call: 9819391806
For Annushka Jaliwala, a 26-year-old graphic designer and chef, it’s the simple coming together of her two passions. “Coming from a design background, the idea of creating visually appealing food always played in my head, even before I started cooking professionally. And, I’d keep ruminating about how I could merge food with art and design. Eventually, after a cake decoration workshop, I realised the ease of painting with food colours was akin to watercolours. I found the balance between creativity and baking that I had desired,” she says.
When it comes to getting the flavour right, Jaliwala tries co-ordinating design with flavour, but more in terms of colour. She makes a variety of flavours such as dark chocolate sea salt, salted caramel, white chocolate and mint, strawberry cheesecake, blueberry cheesecake, dark chocolate mint, and vanilla bean. Her pop-up menus are shared on her Instagram page (@feminomnom) and she also accepts customisation orders. Keeping her graphic design background in mind, Jaliwala goes the extra mile by creating mood boards before actually painting on the macarons. She adds, “It takes me over six hours to paint a batch of 140 macarons. That’s 280 shells.”
Aishwarya Sinkar
The art work, says 25-year-old Aishwarya Sinkar, ensures that clients first “eat with their eyes.” Sinkar, who has a Diploma in Pastry Arts from the Mumbai-based Academy of Pastry Arts, worked with brands such as La Folie and Fabelle Chocolate Boutique at ITC Maratha, before starting her own venture, Viola Patisserie, which is a studio kitchen that makes made-to-order desserts. She says, “Painting has always been my hobby. Be it paper, walls or articles, I love making things atheistically pleasing. Macarons are delicious as they are. But painting on them just takes them to another level.”
Sinkar’s work is customised to occasions and sometimes she also incorporates her painted macarons for the cake topper. She explains, “Some of the flavours that we do are rose macarons with beautiful roses painted on them. We do one with lavender painted on it and the flavour is lavender and chocolate. We can also customise them for any occasion and they make excellent party or wedding gifts, where you put any date or initials or even a thank you on the macarons.”
Annushka Jaliwala of Feminomnom is a graphic designer and chef, who started painting macarons when she realised that food colour works as wonderfully as water colours. Pic/Sameer Markande
When it comes to desserts, most of us have favourite brands. So, in case you want the macarons from a particular baker handpainted, then Akruthi Kataria Sureka, the creative head and owner of Anaya by Akruthi, has you covered. She says, “Today, customising is a part of every business. I started doing this for proposal requests, bridesmaid hampers, baby shower announcements, and festivals in bulk orders.” Sureka is an artist and painting is her forte. She avoids adding any flavour in her painting unless it’s requested, as the macarons and cakes already have a strong flavour so she tries and maintain that. She adds, “If I know the baker, then I request them to send me the baked biscuits first, paint them, and then send them back to the baker for the cream filling and packing. If that is not possible, then I request the macarons to be delivered to me for painting a day before, or on the same day as the client delivery. Painting has to be done in a cool room, and handled with nimble fingers since they have a cream filling.”
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