Happy Monday everyone – how was your weekend?  We have been enjoying a long weekend here in Sydney and it is the end of school holidays meaning I will hopefully have more blogging time now kids are back at school.

Today on my Monday Favourite I am bringing you some beautiful work by Lara & Tanya at Mudgee Made in country NSW.  During the month of October I am showcasing a few of the wonderful dessert ladies that specialise in desserts other than cakes!  Lara & Tanya specialises in Macaron’s and here is what they told me about her business and love of Mac’s.

When did you find a passion for macaron making?

I love cookbooks, and started seeing increasing numbers of macaron recipes and thought I would give them a try for Mothers’ Day 2011. They were delicious, and not currently available in our region, so we decided to make them for the local Farmer’s Market.  They were an absolute hit, and while we are still making them for the markets, we are increasingly making them for dessert tables, high teas, weddings, birthdays, etc.  We started off with three basic flavours – chocolate, strawberry and lemon – but have created more than 60 different flavours, including special occasion macarons for Christmas, Easter and Valentines Day

Tell us a little bit more about your business, how long have you had it and how did it get started

 We met in Mothers’ Group with our first babies and quickly became close friends as we live on nearby farms and both share a passion for cooking.  We were both looking for a business we could run from home, which would allow us to raise our young families and work to our own pace.  So we came up with the concept of Mudgee Made, offering delicious and wholesome Australian and international foods. We started off catering for small events, but now can cater for weddings of up to 250 guests. In addition to our catering services, we offer beautiful cakes for all events, macarons our specialty and will include homegrown David Austin roses from this spring.  A career highlight for us was having our macarons featured in Country Style Magazine (with our Christmas range of macarons – Christmas pudding, white christmas, candy cane and brandy custard flavours) – and having one of our wedding towers featured in Cosmo Bride Magazine.   More information can be found at www.mudgeemade.com.au or on our Facebook page.

 What is the most popular colour and flavour of macaron.

There are endless flavour and colour combinations for macarons and we are always experimenting and trying something new.  We have lots of Facebook competitions too, letting our customers be involved in the creative process!  As determined by sales, our most popular flavour is our rocky road macaron which features, roasted peanuts and coconut, turkish delight and marshmallow. One of my personal favourites is our “Hot Cross Bun” macaron that we make at Easter with a slightly salty buttery filling and spiced shell.  The most popular macaron colour is probably bright red, but our recent “Freckle” macarons have been really fun and popular with the young and young at heart.  When it comes to weddings, more traditional colour and flavour combinations are chosen – rose, pistachio, hazelnut, chocolate and macadamia.