We have another macaron surprise for everyone, thanks to your overwhelming response to honeyandsoy’s Macaron Mastery course. If you are already a part of the course, we hope you have found the information helpful and that you have gained some confidence in making your own macarons. We have actually gone one step further, and compiled a more detailed book based on the Macaron Mastery course! I proudly present to you: “Making failproof macarons: A comprehensive step-by-step guide”

When I set about writing a macaron guide, I wanted to outline everything I learnt in an easy to comprehend, step-by-step manner so that anyone who picked up the guide could feel like they were equipped with all the knowledge and essential tricks before they even went out to buy their ingredients, and feel confident to make a successful batch of macarons on their first try. The main question I asked myself was “What would one need to know to make a failproof macaron?” And the title of the guide created itself, really! What I thought was going to be a ‘guide’ i.e. a few pages,  is a book in itself, with the first half dedicated to walking the reader through the process, essential tools, techniques and tips, and the second half comprising of recipes that I’ve featured here on honeyandsoy, and numerous ones that are yet to appear! If you have already gone through the Macaron Mastery course, you will see that the basic process described in the course appears in Making Failproof Macarons, but with much greater detail, and photos illustrating the steps, with even more tips and tricks.  There are also many many more macaron recipes in the book, and I couldn’t help myself and added little touches to make the book look really fun and pretty!

Making failproof macarons by honeyandsoy | Make Your Own Book

Another factor that prompted me to make a book out of our little guide was Blurb.com, a book publishing website that takes all the hard work out of a task that seems gargantuan to an average person.

I found the process of making our book on Blurb extremely easy. You just download their software- I used BookSmart, and then put your book together using pre-designed templates, backgrounds and ornaments, then upload to the website, order your book, and wait for it to arrive in the mail! The screenshots of our book are directly from BookSmart. I found it extremely fun as the designs available are elegant and not garish. It did take me a while to put my book together because I had so much text (and I have been described as pedantic more times than I can count) but you should be able to put together a book in one afternoon. What I found very helpful was the pre-loaded templates, that come in many categories from photobooks, to recipes, text, and even chapter templates! The only hitch I encountered was BookSmart crashing when I tried to copy and paste large amounts of text. But as I said, I did have a lot of text!

I am extremely happy with our book- the comments we have gotten so far from family mainly sound like this- “Wow, it’s an ACTUAL book!” and “Looks so professional!”.

Now, I hope all my chatter has made you think “OK, stop talking already! How do I get my hands on one?”

“Making failproof macarons: A comprehensive step-by-step guide” is literally hot off the press, and is available for purchase from Blurb.com, by clicking this link.

Details:

Square (18 x 18cm/7 x 7 inch)

Softcover

Beautiful backgrounds and images are interspersed with informative text laid out in a clear, easy-to-follow manner. Perfect for anyone who has a love for macarons. Doubles up as a pretty coffee table book.

54 pages

US$23.95/AU$28.92 (Note: With the current strong Aussie dollar, we would advise Aussie readers to buy using US dollars)

See an online preview here

If you haven’t finished your Christmas shopping (less than a month everyone!) here is your solution for any domestic goddess- a friend, sister, wife, mother, anyone with a macaron festish. Perhaps you have always wanted to perfect the art of making macarons, and now is the time to spoil yourself with a beautiful book, plus you will be just in time to impress your mother-in-law at Christmas when you bring out a tray of these gems!

I hope you are all as inspired and excited as we are about our little book . I did promise some goodies too, and we are all about spreading love and Christmas cheer, so these little Christmas presents are  just for all you lovely readers at honeyandsoy!

ALL honeyandsoy readers will get free priority shipping (worth AUD$9.99) until 31st December 2010 for any order from Blurb.com!  Do note though, for your book to arrive in time for Christmas, you must order it by Sunday, 12th December 2010.

So, you can order “Making failproof macarons: A comprehensive step-by-step guide” with free priority shipping ,or you can make your very own book on Blurb just like we did. You may want to make your very own book of family recipes, complete with photographs of the family, or a photobook about your last trip to an exotic destination, or a book about a collection of memories… the possibilities are endless! If you need more last-minute Christmas gift solutions,  then making your own book and giving these to your loved ones as Christmas presents will be a unique, handmade gift that no one will chuck in the back of their closet.

To get free priority shipping from Blurb.com, enter your email address below and your free shipping code will be emailed to you. Remember to enter this code at checkout.

But that’s not all! We also have three copies of “Making failproof macarons: A comprehensive step-by-step guide” to give away!

To win one of these books, simply leave a comment at the end of this post describing your perfect Christmas macaron. You can enter as many times as you wish, once daily. The giveaway is open to anyone around the world that we can mail the book to, and is worth US$23.95. The giveaway closes at 5pm AEST, Friday, 10th December 2010.

Good luck and thanks for being a part of honeyandsoy’s macaron journey so far. Here is to many many more macaron adventures to come!

A special thank you to the team from Blurb, particularly Bree for her patience and guidance.

Tags: macaron guide, macarons