Delicious Desserts - Macarons

If you read my previous post, you'll have seen that I was not 100% on the cake train. Although, if there were an actual train of cake, I could probably get on-board with that. Anyway, when we were still deciding whether or not to do cake, we decided to bring in another dessert option.

To preface this, I had the opportunity during college to live in Paris not once, but twice, during two different May Terms. The last time I was there, in 2009, I lived right off of La Place de la Madeleine. Big, beautiful Neo-Classical church, on a site line down La Rue Royale towards La Place de la Concorde. I know all of that might mean nothing to you, but the salient point here is that in the Place Madeleine is a pretty little shop called Ladurée, of macaron fame. It isn't their biggest shop, but that didn't make it any less tempting. I did manage to avoid eating macarons every single day, but definitely managed to make a few visits every week.

Left to Right: Raspberry, Coffee, Pumpkin Spice, Pistachio (2), Lavender White Chocolate

What all of that means for the wedding, really, is that I wanted macarons. And, luckily for me, there's a wonderful little French cafe in Des Moines called La Mie. My mom goes there quite a bit, uses it for informal meetings for work, and she raves about their macarons.

So, on Monday, BM S, Brother E, his girlfriend A, Mr. C and I met at La Mie to taste some macarons. As BM S is expecting a little bee in July, she abstained from any of the creme filled (aka raw egg) macarons, but she did get to help me taste my favorite, raspberry. We decided we're going to order 300 macarons (for 150 guests), in each flavor except the Lavendar White Chocolate. It didn't do a lot for me. The coffee didn't either, but Mr. C loves coffee so I figured I'd give him that one.

Mmm.....macarons

Now, two questions remain. First, we have to pick up the macarons the day before the wedding as the cafe is closed on Sundays, and find enough refrigerator storage to keep them all cold. This may mean spreading them out between bridesmaids, their parents, and some local family friends with the hope that they all get to the venue in time. I'm also going to try talking to our caterers to see if they have storage space for them in a big fridge somewhere.

The other question is, how do we want to display them? I'll come back to that, I promise. For now, I'm going to leave you hanging :)