I think we can all agree that pastries and desserts are edible art… no, edible masterpieces. And the French certainly excel in whipping up delicately decadent delights like pain au choclat, eclairs and macarons. French pastries taste like heaven in our mouths but will have you raising hell when you try to make them yourself. But hobby baker Kim Delia from Bern, Switzerland has found a perfect way to make her culinary creations stand out from the pastel pastry spectrum.
You don’t need much to make these treats. All you really need is some almond flour, egg whites, powdered sugar, granulated sugar, food coloring and of course your filling of choice. The challenge lies in the preparation, which is notoriously delicate. Nobody ever gets these right on their first try because of this. So if you’re thinking of whipping up a batch of pastel-colored pastries, you’ll need a lot of patience and enthusiasm to get you through. But once you learn how to work those egg whites just right, you’ll be ready to wow everyone with a flawlessly colorful and delicious batch.
Hobby baker Kim Delia began baking for fun
As we said earlier, Kim Delia is a hobby baker. She’s actually a florist in a textile shop. And when she’s not working with flowers or flour, she rides her motorcycle or yodels with a band. Aside from that, Kim Delia is also an actor for a theater association. She’s certainly as interesting as her gorgeous bakes! According to Kim, she began dabbling with baking two years ago for fun.
“I made my first cake ever for fun. It looked pretty good but was horrible to eat!” she shared. “So I made another one. And another one. And another one… Eventually I was making 2-3 cakes a week after work. That was too much, so I stopped making orders.”
Then, she tried making macarons
After finding success in cake baking, Kim Delia decided to try doing something else. So in January 2019, the multi-faceted florist put her skills to the test by making these little treats. According to Kim, they fascinate her because they offer unlimited possibilities. You can even make it look like a sleeping unicorn if you want to level up the whimsy of this bake! She has said that she likes making these because they are a challenge. “I don’t have the ultimate recipe, so the end result is a surprise every time. I usually don’t know if they will come out good or not.”
Kim got creative when her bakes came out cracked
“I belong to a baking group and other members are always exchanging [photos] of their cracked macarons with sad emojis. One time, when mine got cracks as well, I decided to make ‘geode macs’ out of them and show it to the group. Now others are making them! When life gives you lemons…”
Instead of chucking the cracked ones, she turned them into geode macs and everyone fell in love with the concept
She uses fondant to transform her macs into bite-sized works of art
Kim went on to create more eye-catching designs after that. However, the hobby baker openly admitted that taste isn’t her foremost priority when she makes her incredible edible art. After all, her creations comprise (mostly) of the shell and fondant. She uses the fondant to create the decorative elements like bunnies, roses, toilet paper, and even the virus that forced the world into lockdown!
“That’s the only way they stay like this. So I can’t say the taste is the most important thing when I’m making them. But when I’m going for ‘normal’ macarons, then taste definitely comes first.”
These flora-themed treats are perfect for a spring spread
There’s bound to be someone you’d want to give this to
Her more classic versions are irresistible too
Sometimes Kim glams up her creations with gold leaf
Some designs deviate from the classic pastel palette
Honestly we don’t mind that her artsy macs won’t taste as good as the normal ones. We wouldn’t want to ruin her work anyway! In fact, we’d probably just keep these in a glass box and stare at them forever because they’re just so gorgeous! Which of Kim’s designs caught your eye the most?
Source: Kim Delia