kitch kitsch

my virgin macaroons, made with weiyang and boonping! some of them look so nice, but it's quite difficult to get the right texture and look at the same time.
the macaroon batter is quick to make. it's just the preparation that is a bit troublesome; have to measure icing sugar by cup, and then process it with cocoa and ground almonds to pulverise more. initially, it didn't look like the dry ingredients were going to blend into the meringue, but just we just kept folding, and soon everything became sticky and chocolatey.
after piping out the batter (i hate piping things), we left them to rest in an air-conditioned room. i was trying to create a real room-temperature and dry room for the batter to sit in. this supposedly helps it form a skin.
and they baked up really pretty. (or actually only two of the six trays did.) but only one tray wasn't brick-hard or burnt.
if you looked at the assembled macaroons, you might think they were filled with some caramel or espresso-hazelnut buttercream. however, there is some incriminating evidence in the photos: we used peanut butter, because the chocolate ganache failed to set up.