Matrimonial Macarons

In Malay culture, asking for a woman's hand in marriage is not the job of the man, but his family's! In fact, the man's family will ask for the woman's hand in marriage through her family too! Of course in this day and age, this custom called merisik acts only as a ritual, serving as a pre-event to the actual wedding, as arranged marriages are pretty much unheard of.

The merisik is then followed by an engagement ceremony called bertunang, and lastly the holy matrimony called nikah where the couple are married off in accordance to religious observance.

During merisik, the man's family will bring with them a tepak sirih , a betel leaf container and some gifts consisting of sweet treats or fruits, usually in an odd number.

So, where am I leading to? Well, last Sunday I was a member of the merisik party for my nephew, who is planning to tie the knot in November. This mini macaron tower was what I contributed as one of the gifts. Chocolate and almond macarons with strawberries and tiny daisies to go along.

And I am submitting this part-chocolate macaron tower to April's MacTweets! This month's MacTweets is all about chocolates! I used my favourite chocolate macaron recipe by David Lebovitz and filled it up with bittersweet chocolate ganache. Chocolatey indeed!

Also some more macarons for matrimony... a colleague tied the know last weekend and requested cream and pink macarons as gifts for the groom, known as hantaran during her nikah ceremony.

They were filled with peanut butter and raspberry jam. Yumms!