Take the biscuit

hasn't abated, with more shops opening to sell the sweet pastel-coloured treats. The latest French import - Pierre Hermé, which launched its first Hong Kong branch in Central in May - opened its second shop at the end of September in Tsim Sha Tsui.

Macarons are easy to like. Much smaller and more delicate than cupcakes (so last year!), they're composed of two shells made of just three ingredients: egg whites, ground almonds and sugar.

But macaron makers let their imaginations go wild with decorations, using food colouring, lustre dust and powders, and fillings that can be anything from buttercream (butter, sugar andother ingredients) to ganache (chocolate and cream).

The gerbet (or Parisian) macaron - the one we see today - is nothing new; it's been evolving since the 17th century. (You can see stacks of them in , the 2006 film by Sofia Coppola.) Such is their popularity that McDonald's in France has been selling them at its McCafé outlets since 2007; recently, they've also been available at a few McCafés in Hong Kong.

They're notoriously difficult to make: the two biscuits should be the same size, gently domed, delicately coloured, slightly glossy, and have the all-important frill (also called the "pied", or foot) at the base, while the filling should have good mouthfeel, balanced sweetness and clarity of flavour.

Each taster could give up to five points for appearance and up to 20 for flavour. We purchased all the macarons on the same day, before taking them to On Lot 10 in Central for the blind taste test.