Pierre Herme's Ispahan - Recreated

isnt this gorgeous? fresh raspberries & a lychee in the middle sit on rose scented italian meringue buttercream and sandwiched between two pink macaron shells. the name of this macaron is called ispahan - solely created by pierre herme, the picasso of pastry but i prefer to call him the gucci or LV in the pastry world :p like i mentioned, if you're on a macaron frenzy (both in making & eating), then you'll most probably heard of pierre herme. and if you know pierre herme, then you're most likely to know his world-famous ispahan - adored by fans around the world! you can read all about him here. anyway, i've been dying to make these eons ago but i couldnt find really good raspberries to begin with. so when i was out grocery shopping yesterday, i saw some really firm, ripe & fresh ones and quickly grabbed 3 punnets (despite them being so expensive)!

the innards. my first attempt had been satisfactory, coz its super easy to put it together. only thing is, i was a little worried coz this is the 1st time i make macaron shells THIS big. i mean, its almost double the size of the normal macarons. so i was really afraid they wouldnt develop feet or something. but i guess my fears were unfounded. only thing is, i find that the shells were a little too thin. anyhow i love it coz its a blast on the senses - looks good and tastes good (at least for me). the tartness of the raspberries really balance up the sweetness of the macarons. and the lychees were rinsed to take away more sweetness so i kinda like the fact that they're not overly sweet.