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When Bakedown Cakery’s Jen Lo met MakMak’s Carlos Heng and Dan Pigott during a macaron-making class, sparks flew. Although constantly busy at the time with pop-ups and market stalls, Lo was keen to try a collaboration.

Lo’s striking cakes experiment with colour and texture – they are inspired by her background in design. She also produces chocolate blocks visually inspired by Jackson Pollock. She runs the business with her husband, Nick Simpson, but before MADE, never had her own retail space. MakMak makes some of the best macarons in the city – flavours include Coke Spider and Banana and Rhubarb Split.

MADE, named to reflect the handcrafted nature of the desserts, is in a converted police cell in Clarence Street’s Gaffa Gallery. The shop has a quirky, colourful design: a huge Mondrian-inspired mural takes up an entire wall in the tiny space, and the floor is covered with Astroturf.

There are three seasonal collections of macarons in store per year, in addition to limited-edition flavours. There are also 36-hour Belgian dark-chocolate-chip cookies. They are made with dough aged for 36 hours to fully hydrate dry ingredients. A range of Lo’s cakes will be available to try as well as to buy. Also look out for a Frankenstein-esque macaron-cake collaboration. It’s a cake made with macaron ingredients. The cake has layers of macaron sheets with ganache, buttercream or caramel (depending on the flavour), and covered in a smooth glaze.

Updated: March 13th, 2018

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