Today we’d like to introduce you to Allison Forbes.
Hi Allison, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I’m an Air Force wife, mom of three, and self taught baker whose COVID hobby became a passion and now, a profession.
In 2017, we were stationed in Shreveport, LA at Barksdale Air Force Base. During my husband’s deployment, a dear friend, who had formal training as a pastry chef, had me over for a baking day to cheer me up and showed me how to make macarons. I quickly wrote them off as too complicated to do on my own and didn’t think much more about them at the time.
Fast forward to 2020 and a lot of time around the house thanks to COVID. At the encouragement of my husband, we tried out a batch of macarons on our own…and I was hooked. I couldn’t stop thinking about new flavor combinations I wanted to try. I watched videos on YouTube and Instagram to learn techniques, read cookbooks, and made a ridiculous amount of practice batches. After multiple requests from friends to purchase my macarons, I started a small cottage food operation out of my home in Colorado Springs, our duty station at the time.
When we moved to Maryville in 2022, I was 7 months pregnant with our youngest daughter. Our first year living in Tennessee was a fog of newborn exhaustion and adjusting to life with three kiddos in a new state. In the summer of 2023, I was deeply missing making macarons. I discovered that there was a well-established macaron baker, Hannah Harper of Hammie’s Sammies, whose macarons were beloved in the community. Rather than try to compete with her, I wanted to join her! I visited her booth at the farmers market, enthusiastically introduced myself and asked her to consider hiring me. It was fortuitous timing; she was preparing to open Harper’s Arts Cafe on Highland and was needing to hire a baker in order to shift her focus to the business and cafe management.
I adored working for Hannah and learned so much from her. It gave me the opportunity to bake outside my home in a commercial kitchen setting, expand my baking knowledge, and meet other small business owners in the community. She closed the cafe at the end of March this year and I decided it was time to return to my roots. This summer, I relaunched Macarons by Allison and have been working on building my customer base.
Week to week, I sell my macarons through the website Hot Plate (my page is www.hotplate.com/macaronsbyallison). The website allows customers to sign up to receive text alerts whenever I have pop up sales or available inventory for pick up. Tri-Hop Brewery in downtown Maryville has had me out a couple times for pop up events and they stock packs of 2 macarons in the cooler in their front room to purchase while enjoying a pint.
Seasonally, I will be a vendor in several upcoming markets, including the East Tennessee Makers Market on October 4 at Maryville College and the Downtown Maryville Holiday Market on November 29.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Macarons are an extremely technical bake. They require precision and there are multiple variables throughout the process that, if not done correctly, result in a failure. I’ve had several this week actually! I am working with a new-to-me convection oven and am having some difficulty with it. I think macarons bring out the competitive side of me, along with the creative side, because I enjoy the challenge of creating something so precise and it coming out beautifully.
On a more personal level, because of my husband’s job in the Air Force, we move every 3-4 years. It’s so bittersweet. We get to live in new places and explore parts of the country we likely wouldn’t have otherwise. We get to make new friends…but then we have to say goodbye to the people and places we’ve come to love. From a business standpoint, it is challenging to have to start completely over each time we move.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am constantly dreaming up flavor combinations and find so much joy in creating something beautiful and delicious for people to enjoy. I love that macarons can instantly elevate a moment, whether it’s pausing for a sweet bite in the middle of an ordinary week, indulging as part of a celebration, or sharing with a friend to brighten their day.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.hotplate.com/macaronsbyallison
- Instagram: @macaronsbyallison
- Facebook: @macaronsbyallison
