yummy birthday presents!

the great thing about being "the baker" in a group of friends, is that you already know what you have to bring to a birthday party. and it takes away the need to go shopping for a gift! my wonderful friend Kristyn turned 21 recently, so i decided to make her a fraisier cake to celebrate :) it turned out a lot larger than i had envisioned, and was big enough to feed 25 people with a huge chunk leftover.

A cross section of the cake- vanilla genoise, buttercream, strawberries and
creme mousseline, vanilla genoise and marzipan for decoration

i was also asked to make some French macarons as a gift from another friend. thanks a million to my classmate and friend marianne for the most awesome macaron recipe EVER! the recipe was so easy, and the shells came out perfectly baked :) i made apple-cinnamon macarons and caramel-fleur de sel macarons- drooollll.

Rear- caramel-fleur de sel macarons, front- apple-cinnamon macarons
Photocred: Kevin Fong