Aysha Ahmed loves a good challenge in the kitchen, especially if it involves making something as tricky and complicated as a macaron. Running The Macaron Magazine single-handedly since May this year, she has devoted her entire life to baking, which she confesses has been her passion for the longest time.

Aysha holds a diploma in patisserie from the Lavonne Baking Academy in Bangalore, where she gained some work experience at a bakery after receiving her diploma. Her forte is macarons in assorted flavour fillings, and she also does cake-based desserts for orders. Aysha says that her desserts are about customization so it wouldn’t be unusual to find her whipping up a chocolate cake with a crème brûlée or chocolate mousse layer.

Moving on to the macarons, Aysha explains that it took her a great deal of failed attempts to finally get the perfect consistency in the macaron batter, because you can’t just fix the macaron batter if the consistency goes wrong or if you’re missing an ingredient - unlike a cake, cupcake or pudding. ‘You have to be very precise with it,” she explains.

Aysha loves using a plain chocolate ganache to sandwich the macaron shells together, but she does a variety of other filling flavours such as pistachio, almond, chocolate mint, chocolate praline, strawberry, blueberry and a coconut and cream.

Other items on the menu at The Macaron Magazine are chocolate truffles, éclairs, marshmallows, themed cakes and sweet pastries. Aysha would love to focus her attention on orders for large events such as birthday parties, engagements and weddings, and customers should make the order two weeks prior to the event.

For smaller orders such as a box of 15 (the minimum number for an order) macarons, she requires a day’s notice and for a cake or dessert, it’s one week. As for ingredients, she uses local and imported products to prepare her confections.

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By Sarah Kellapatha

Pics courtesy The Macaron Magazine/Aamina Nizar