What can you buy with six dollars? A soft drink? A bag of potato chips? With the inflation, you are pretty much limited to these items. But we at CUHK can also enjoy a macaron with that money. All the rage in recent years, a macaron is a French confectionery made with a lot of time and patience. Macarons are served everyday at Café 12, a cafe operated by the School of Hotel and Tourism Management on the third floor of the Cheng Yu Tung Building. It’s a steal, compared to the ones at cake shops around town, which cost over $10 or even $20 a piece.

Mr. David Kwok, the pastry chef of the School, said, the confectionery is made by mixing beaten egg whites with pure almond powder, icing sugar, sugar and other ingredients depending on the flavour. The mixture is piped into a round shape of about one inch diameter. It’s left to rest for a while, with duration depending on the humidity, before being put into the oven to bake. After baking, macarons of the same size are sandwiched together with butter cream or jam of different flavours.

To ensure the colours of the macarons and the filling are the same, food colouring is added. For example, light green partners with mint, blue goes with blackcurrant while brown pairs up with coffee. They’re crispy outside and soft inside. And their fresh appearance and sweet taste will give you much enjoyment.