These miniature treats are classy, elegant and dainty. They make a great dinner party dessert, you can be adventurous with your colours and flavours and once you get the hang of them they’re much simpler to make than you’d imagine. Their lightness screams temptation, so you may find yourself and your taste testers going overboard with these.

Ingredients:

• 4 egg whites
• 75g caster sugar
• 225g icing sugar
• 115g ground almonds
• 1 tbsp instant coffee (for macarons)
• 1 tbsp instant coffee (for filling)
• a pinch of salt
• 150g dark chocolate
• 125ml double/whipping cream

Equipment:

• Electric whisk
• Large mixing bowl
• Spatula
• Baking sheet
• Piping bag/pastry bag
• Round Icing nozzle

Step 1:

Preheat your oven to 150 Celsius. Carefully separate your egg whites into one large mixing bowl, add the caster sugar and whisk with an electric mixer/whisk until stiff peaks form. You should be able to tip the bowl upside down without the mixture moving at all.

Tip: Be patient, it could take as long as 10 minutes for stiff peaks to form but do not over whisk.

Sift the icing sugar, ground almonds, one tablespoon of instant coffee and a pinch of salt into a separate bowl. Do this twice (or pulse in a food processor), and make sure that there are absolutely no clumps or your mixture will not be smooth enough.

Step 3:

Carefully and gently fold your dry ingredients into the egg whites and sugar mixture until everything is fully combined. This should take approximately 40 folds and the mixture should be almost smooth.

Tip: Don’t be tempted to go overboard with mixing. If your mixture consistency is too smooth, then your macarons will flatten.

Step 4:

Line two baking sheets with non-stick paper. Then, using a piping bag and a round nozzle, pipe circles onto the tray. Once complete, firmly rap your baking tray on a hard surface a few times. Place into the oven at 150 Celsius for approximately 20-25 minutes. They should come off the tray easily when ready, and you should leave them to cool on a cooling rack.

Tip: Place your piping bag inside a tall drinking glass and roll the edges over as this will make spooning the mixture into it easier.

Tip: If your macarons end up cracked, you haven’t rapped them on the table firmly enough, or you haven’t rapped them enough times.

Step 5:

Break your chocolate up into small pieces and leave in a small bowl. Heat your cream in a saucepan and once boiling, stir in your remaining tablespoon of instant coffee and pour over your chocolate. Stir until the mixture has thickened and all the chocolate has melted. If the mixture is too runny then you will need to leave it to stand until it thickens. Once finished, spoon as much ganache as you like onto half your macaron shells and sandwich other halves on top. Be careful not to squash them!

Good luck, and remember that practice makes perfect!

For those of you thinking 'what the heck is Speculoos?!', it's a delicious biscuit spread that tastes somewhere between gingerbread and digestives and it is heaven. Some people even have it straight on toast (not me, that's too far.) It was super popular in France when I lived there but seems to be more readily available in the UK now.

This recipe uses a base of vanilla cupcake with a Speculoos surprise in the middle, along with a fancy piped buttercream. The fun speculoos/vanilla combination in the buttercream is the trickiest part to master but even that only requires a piping bag, the right nozzle and a little bit of precision.

Ingredients

Cupcakes

150g butter
150g caster sugar
150g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
Speculoos/Biscoff spread

Buttercream

125g butter
250g icing sugar
a few tsp water

Cream the butter and sugar together.

Step 2:

Beat in the eggs and the vanilla essence.

Step 3:

Stir in the sifted flour, baking powder, and a pinch of salt.

Step 4:

Fill one third of your cupcakes cases with cake mixture. Add a dollop of speculoos spread in the centre and cover with more mixture.

Step 5: 

Bake in a preheated oven at 180c for 10-15 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

Step 6: 

Beat your butter in a bowl and add the sifted icing sugar. Mix until combined and smooth, adding drops of water as and when needed.

Step 7:

Add streaks of speculoos spread to the inside of your piping bag, followed by the icing mixture. Using a large star nozzle, decorate your completely cooled cupcakes.

The method is pretty straight-forward so I wouldn't say you need baking superpowers for this one - just give it a go and see how it turns out!

Ingredients: