In a small saucepan, gently bring the cream and sugar to a boil. Remove from the heat, add the tea bags, cover with plastic film and allow to infuse for half an hour. After 30 minutes have passed, remove the tea bags and reheat the cream.

Chop the chocolate into small pieces and place in a bowl. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and whisk until smooth and glossy. Add the remaining 200g of cold cream, whisk well and place in the fridge for at least several hours or overnight.

The next day, whip the ganache until stiff peaks form. Fit a piping bag with a start shaped tip and fill with the ganache.

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Sift the almond meal and icing sugar into a large bowl. Add 30g of eggwhite and a drop of pink food colouring. Mix well. It will feel very dry at first, but keep mixing and you will have a thick paste. Set aside.

Next, make an Italien Meringue by bringing the sugar, water and pink food colouring to a boil. Continue to heat until the syrup reaches 118°C. Place the other 30g of eggwhite into the bowl of your Kitchenaid Mini and turn on to high speed. While the mixer is whisking the eggwhites, slowly pour in the hot syrup. Continue to beat until the meringue cools down to room temperature (approximately 5-10mins).

The next stage is the ‘macaronage’, the stage where you fold the almonds and icing sugar into the meringue. You have to be very careful not to overmix or undermix. For best results, use a spatula and vigorously stir in roughly ¼ of the meringue into the almond mixture. Mix really well to loosen it up. Fold in the next ¼ more delicately and continue gently folding until all the meringue is incorporated. The mixture is the right consistency when it falls off the spoon/spatula in a thick ribbon. As it falls back into the rest of the mixture, the outline of the ribbon should be visible at first, but should then be incorporated into the remaining mixture after a few seconds. If the mixture looks quite lumpy still, continue mixing. If it looks really runny, you’ve mixed too much and unfortunately, you’ll need to start again.

Transfer the mixture to a piping bag. Hold the piping bag vertically, about 1/2cm from the surface of the silicon mat. Pipe enough mixture so that it is a couple of mm from the outline of the template, the mixture will spread slightly.

Give each of the trays a firm tap on the counter top, this will flatten the peaks and bring any air bubbles to the surface. Break these air bubbles with a tooth pick.

Leave the macarons to rest until they are dry to the touch. The time could vary from anywhere between 15 minutes to two hours depending on the weather.

Place the macarons in the oven and bake at 180°C for 10 minutes. Once cooked, slide the macaron mat onto a damp surface and allow to completely cool before attempting to remove them.

Place all ingredients in a small saucepan. Slowly bring to a boil, using a wooden spoon to smash up the raspberries as it heats. Allow to boil for 2 minutes, then pour into a container and allow to cool.

Pipe a ring of ganache on half of the macarons shells. Add a small amount of raspberry compote in the centre and place another macaron shell on top. Decorate with gold leaf. Store in the fridge.