From afternoon teas to bespoke wedding favours – Le Mini Macaron has you covered

Growing up with a home economist mum, Joanne Kenyon and her sister Emma were always going to have an appreciation for cooking. But for Joanne, that appreciation fast became a passion – nurtured partly by dad Julian (who, we’ve heard, makes a mean chocolate cake) and sped along by a birthday present Emma bought her eight years ago. The gift in question? A macaron making kit. The problem? The macarons she made with it turned out to be a disaster!

Intrigued by the challenge to help Joanne get them right, mum Gillian got in on the action and, together, Joanne and Gillian kept trying macaron mixture after macaron mixture… until they stumbled upon what can only be described as pure baking greatness. (Trust us – we’ve tried them).

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We caught up with Joanne to find out just what makes Le Mini Macaron slicker than your average bakery, what they’ve got their sights set on next and how we can get in on the macaron making action now too…

What gave you both the final push to turn your love of baking into a business?

After we finally succeeded in making the macarons, we thought we would give some out for friends and family to try, and they were a huge success. Gillian – who used to run her own children’s cookery company – noticed that there seemed to be a gap in the market here in the North East for a macaron company.

With her expertise of running a business before, we decided to start up small and attend a couple of markets and wedding fairs. Everything went very well and, after a couple of years, I gave up my full-time job in hospitality management to go full-time with Gillian at Le Mini Macaron.

All the flavourings of your macarons are 100% natural and gluten free. What are each of your favourite flavours right now?

Macarons are already very sweet – even overly sweet, if non-natural flavours are used. So when we started creating our flavour combos, it was very important to us to avoid any sickliness by using only natural flavours. A fresh macaron should also be naturally gluten-free, as they’re made with a meringue base and ground almonds – flour shouldn’t be added, as it can dry them out and make them more biscuity.

Currently, Gillian’s favourite flavour is our Lemon Meringue Macaron. We make a sumptuous, zesty, fresh lemon curd to go in the centre and, with summer very much here now, it’s always a popular flavour. But if she’s feeling indulgent, she reckons you can never go wrong with a Double Chocolate Macaron either!

You’re a mother and daughter team. Was cooking and baking a big part of your family life?

I was very lucky to be brought up within a family where Mum would cook a healthy meal from scratch every night. That started my appreciation for food. I also remember standing on a chair in the kitchen and helping my Dad bake his famous chocolate cake with jam in the centre at the weekends.

When I started in hospitality, I was introduced to lots of different foods – which I then tried cooking at home for my Mum, Dad and sister. We all have a major love of food and love cooking and baking! We have a family whatsapp group, which is mainly filled with photos of what everyone is cooking that night!

You’re back on the local market scene. Why are markets so important for Le Mini Macaron?

We get a real kick out of attending markets – whether it’s getting regular customers coming back to refill their egg boxes or chatting with new customers, telling them all about Le Mini Macaron and getting feedback. We love seeing someone try one of our macarons for the first time and loving them!

You also create bespoke macaron cakes, eclairs and macaron walls for special occasions. Which is your favourite to make?

I absolutely love making macaron cakes. I have more freedom to be creative when I’m decorating them and get to go a bit crazy! My favourite was our Easter macaron cake; I bought lots of beautiful Easter chocolates for decoration, and then the middle was a chocolate explosion of fillings with pockets of caramel and marshmallow fluff!

What does the future hold for Le Mini Macaron?

We’re currently focused on getting into more retail and cafés. Lockdown was really great for the online business, but since restrictions have lifted that has fallen away slightly, so we hope to build that back up. As a business, we haven’t tried to expand beyond our capabilities and means too quickly – we’ve just taken our time and enjoyed it. We recently moved into a bigger unit at the start of the year and now have a great member of staff – Emma – who helps us make our macarons.

We hope with this unit to start providing macaron making classes to small groups too, which I think will be great fun!

Fancy trying some of Le Mini Macaron’s all-natural flavour combos, giving macaron making or go yourself or bagging your very own tower of macarons?! Yeah, get in line.

Just kidding – find out more about Le Mini Macaron and get your order in via their website, Facebook page or Instagram