I’ve always liked the look of a dainty, brightly coloured, meringue macaron. You know, the ones that you see piled delicately on silver platters in fancy cake shops? They look exquisite, but as I’m more of a cheesecake girl I’d never eaten one until a friend signed up to a macaron cooking class in Bratislava recently. Unable to resist, I went along too. Could the humble macaron win me over?
Making Macarons is Easy When You Know How
French pastry chef, Tanya Novak, runs the classes from a state-of-the-art kitchen that caters for 8 sugar-loving students at a time. Tanya runs the classes in English and draws an international crowd. Our course had students from England, Wales, Italy and Poland, and it was great to chat over hot coffee and pastries which Tanya had prepared beforehand. 
The course is fully hands on. After a short demonstration by Tanya, it was time to get out the ingredients, weighing scales, and KitchenAid mixers. I don’t bake often, but we worked in pairs, and—being a small class—Tanya works closely with every pair. Before long, we were beating eggs, boiling sugar, whipping up almond paste, and perfecting our piping technique. 
Four hours passed quickly amongst lively chatter and the delicious smell of freshly baked macarons. Each pair made a different colour shell with a compatible flavour: we had yellow cases with banana filling, orange with passion fruit filling, white with vanilla caramel filling, and pink with a tangy raspberry filling. Most people liked the passion fruit flavour most, but I really loved the vanilla caramel ones. 
At the end of the session we were each given macaron trays and a large box to take a selection of macarons home with us. We could also take away any leftover pastries from morning break, so I got a couple of yummy choux–pastry cream buns. Watch my snapchat story of the cooking class here.
How to Attend a Macaron Masterclass
Tanya runs the classes regularly at a cost of €30 per person. Considering the level of expertise, quality ingredients, and amount of macarons you take home this is a great price! She also runs other classes, which I hope to attend once the sugar rush of the macarons has worn off. You can sign up to her upcoming classes on her Facebook page here.
As for me, the pretty little macaron won me over. I am not quite brave enough to try making them alone in my own kitchen yet, but who knows? Tanya might make a pastry chef of me one day!
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If you are a sugar-lover in Bratislava with a few hours to spare then I really recommend attending Tanya’s class. If you’re not around, please share this post with any sugar-loving, travelling friends who might be passing this way soon.
This looks like so much fun! I’d love to learn how to make proper macarons. Thanks for the tip!
It was so much fun, and they were completely delicious!
Your macarons look so delicious! When I studied abroad in France, I ate a lot of macarons. Your photos are making me miss them! 😀
I can’t believe that I had never eaten them before – so many missed opportunities!
Yum, what a great experience! It makes me hungry just looking at your gorgeous photos! I wonder if there’s a similar class in Berlin!
Thank you very much! I hope you find something similar in Berlin.
My husband and I are visiting Bratislava this summer and I’m so excited that I came across this post! It looks like such a fun, different experience. I can’t wait to see what other classes are offered. Thanks for sharing.
She does all sorts of classes. She is running a brownies one this week 😀
It’s funny that you say you’ve always liked the look of them. I am the complete opposite but I think it’s just because the colors are all over the place they seem more akin to fake colored candies and that turns me off. Though, I’ve eaten them and I forget every time that I liked them. It would be fun to attend a class and learn how to make them though. Maybe if I saw them in a naturally colored state, I’d like them more, hehe. Does that even make sense?!
I used to go to these classes in Barcelona and they are beautiful. Love the range of flavours. Tanya made it seem easy but there’s definitely an art to these!
I love love love macarons, and this class sounds so fun! I should look for a macaron class around me too!
This is something new to me since I have never tried Macaron. The class looks very fun and they already look so yummy. I would probably love Vanilla with Caramel!
You’re just so kind to share us the whole process of making a macaron. I’ve always wanted to learn how make this one and this would be a help. I’m also a big fan of cheesecake, there’s just something about cheesecake that I can’t elude from tasting it whenever I get the chance. Thank you so much for sharing this.
What a fun, different experience. Even though I don’t eat sweets, I would still love to do this class and my husband would be happy to eat my finished product. Between you and me lovely pictures too
Wow, how cool is this. I love taking cooking classes because it offers such a unique learning experience. I have to admit — I love the look over the taste of them hehe but they sure are gorgeous and colorful! 🙂
Macarons are really exquisite and they taste as lovely as they look. It would be wonderful to learn the fine art of making them from the masters in France. It was a pretty interesting read for me and has spurred me to look up the complete recipe.
Oh, I just ate three macarons hehe! I pinned it for my upcoming trips around Europe!
I would never think of doing a macaron class in Bratislava but then again, that’s the beauty of travel! I love learning what can be offered if you only look! It’s nice to know how diverse your class was too! I never say no to anything passion fruit!