Macaron towers are the new birthday cakes

SINGAPORE — Macarons are one of the hardest desserts to make. Every step is crucial when creating these dainty French delights — from combining the egg whites with the almond and sugar flour and piping the mixture onto a sheet to baking and cooling them for the right amount of time. And while it is already no easy feat, Alyssa Quah, 28, owner and head baker at Milleaville, takes it up a notch by building macaron towers.

And these are not just plain macarons, mind you. She can customise individual macarons to resemble different animals and shapes ranging from dinosaurs to apples. Of course, it is not easy. Quah said that the failure rate for macaron cakes is relatively high. She could spend hours making each macaron and when they are placed in the oven, baking issues might surface, such as the macarons cracking.

Her store, which specialises in making artisanal macarons, has piqued the interest of many, and she only started making macaron towers to fulfil the requests for themed cakes. “As we don’t offer fondant cakes, we thought of offering giant character macarons and towers for celebrations as replacements for cakes,” Quah shared. “Customers have told us that their guests are dazzled by the macaron towers and some of these guests later became our new customers!” Lest you think macarons are only popular with young ladies, Quah revealed that there are guys who order them too, and some who requests for these cakes are grandparents. “Our longevity macarons are the most popular amongst celebrations for Grandparents,” Quah shared.

Quah’s macaron towers are priced from S$55, and she also works with dessert table partners such as BeCandied and Hokey Pokey. “Our macarons are customisable according to the theme for each of their events,” Quah added. “Each macaron cake is like a piece of art to us. The whole cake/tower is customised and hand-piped without any machine, and we spend hours to prepare each masterpiece.”

Find Alyssa Quah at her online store: www.milleaville.com/.