Macaron Day is coming with a lot of new concepts on the 20th of March – the organizers are putting more emphasis on charity this year and this time we can go directly to the pastry shops for our loot.

Macaron Day is being held for the sixth time in Hungary as part of the international Macaron Day on the 20th of March. The new concept this year is to be similar to the Macaron Days of France and New York. Pre-registered pastry shops will be awaiting guest with tastings from 11 am and a significant amount of the daily proceeds will go to the Autistic Art Foundation. (Confectioneries can register here: info@macaronnap.hu) The Autistic Art Foundation is civil funded and maintains 10 residential homes for autistic individuals and their families across the country.

You can get to know the participating pastry shops on the Macaron Day website. Our hope is that many hidden gems and less known shops will have a chance to shine this year. But the largest and most well-known places will join the good cause because according to the experiences of past years a lot of people are interested in this holiday.

A little taste of what’s to come: Desszert.Neked, the winner of best macaron award of 2015 was the first to join the event. The country’s macaron legends, Zazzi Cukrászda will also attend. L’École de Grande Pâtisserie will host a workshop, the ÉdességLabor will be open even though its Monday and the Pausa pastry shop of the Pannonhalma Abbey will come out with their new macarons in Budapest.

No explanation needed

“I confess, I’ve wanted to implement the original concept since the first year but Macaron wasn’t well known in Hungary back then and we didn’t want to take any risks. Also, we couldn’t expect confectioneries to be charitable with something they know so little about.” – said Regina Boros the host and chief organizer of the event. “This will be the sixth Macaron Day and I feel that macaron awareness has peaked. There’s no need to explain to anyone what this little versatile product is that professionals are so obsessed about. Through macaron, they’re able to show their perfect technique and creativity.”

Another novelty of this year’s event is the fact that it doesn’t focus solely on Budapest. This year, they try to explore and introduce every macaron shop of the country. The most popular program of recent years, the macaron contest will also be held this year. It will start with public voting and the pastry shops that get the most votes will be visited by a professional jury. Just like the Michelin-inspectors. To summarize, there will be two winners, a people’s choice, and a professional’s choice. Confectioneries will compete in the “signature” category. This means that they’ll enter their most popular and typical macarons.

Don’t forget: any macaron you buy on the 20th of March will help the Autistic Art Foundation!