- Adding a twist to the conventional éclair
Driven by a need to relax during exam crunch time, Mafaza Haleem began baking and learning to cook. Now, after much practice, she opened up her own cloud kitchen that specialises in éclairs.
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Variety of flavoured éclairs from The Éclair Factory[/caption]
Ten years ago, after nailing her recipe for éclairs, she began selling to friends and family as a small Instagram-based business. Unfortunately, she had to move to Dubai and was only able to continue her business whenever she was given the opportunity to return to Sri Lanka. Her hard work paid off and she even obtained a Master’s Degree in Cake Decorating from the R.L. Clement Cake Decorating School in 2017. After all the change in scenery, once the lockdown was upon us, she had enough free time on her hands to pursue her passion for baking and launched her business as a cloud kitchen.
The Éclair Factory went from just a mere hobby to a fully fledged business in just 10 years.
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Variety of flavoured éclairs from The Éclair Factory[/caption]
They are the first ever choux bakery in Sri Lanka and serve almost 20 flavours of sweet éclairs, while also providing the option of a savoury filling with around five varieties.
Everyone loves a good éclair, but it’s notoriously hard to find one with both the pastry baked to perfection as well as getting the right consistency for the cream. Mafaza’s choux pastries are spot on; just the right amount of flaky, airy, and not too dry. The insides are delicious too, except she turned the conventional éclair around with her own twist – custard instead of cream.
In conversation with Mafaza on what gave her the idea of substituting the usual buttercream with custard, she explained that once The Éclair Factory began gaining popularity, and had a solid customer base, she wanted to be inclusive of everyone and opted for custard as it is not entirely sugar nor is it too sweet. The custard caters to both the sweet tooths and the not-so-sweet tooths and has found a lovely decadent marriage of flavours.
Her éclairs are also made fresh to order in order to maintain a high standard. When a customer places an order in the morning, they work quickly and efficiently to make sure that the product would be ready by mid-afternoon. As they operate on a pre-order basis, they require a four hour notice for all regular orders.
They also undertake customisation for themed parties and corporate events.
They ensure that everything is made fresh, from scratch using all-natural ingredients. Mafaza also informed us that they stay away from preservatives and advise customers to consume within the day as there are no harmful chemicals in the pastries. It is perfect for the health-conscious; not only is it a low-sugar snack, it doesn’t even use harmful additives.
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We had the opportunity to try out five of their éclairs. We had the Classic Éclair, Caramel Éclair, Lemon Curd Éclair, Nutella Éclair, and the Lotus Biscoff Éclair. Ferrero, Coffee, and Chocolate Éclairs[/caption]
The all-time favorite Classic Éclair was filled with custard cream and covered in thick chocolate glaze. You can call us basic, but this was actually our favourite. At first bite, the custard was a bit of a shock, but eventually became quite a pleasant texture. The consistency of the custard was not jelly-like; rather a silky smooth, delicate layer closely resembling cream.
The Caramel Éclair came as a sticky caramel sauce layer covered choux casing filled with rich caramel pastry cream. The caramel flavoured custard was a mind-blowing concept simply because we’ve never thought of incorporating the two ingredients together; but the results were magical. It’s a sticky affair though, so here’s a warning for the mess!
Next the Lotus Biscoff Éclair was a custard filled éclair covered in a layer of white chocolate topping and decorated with crushed Lotus Biscoff. This one, personally, I was not a fan of, simply because I do not enjoy the flavour of the biscoff, but if you’re someone that sees it as something up their alley, we can assure you that it will taste great.
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Profiteroles[/caption]
Another favourite was the Nutella flavoured custard filled choux pastry that came smothered with a rich layer of everyone’s favorite Nutella paste and topped off with a hazelnut. Amazing combination of flavours; one can never go wrong with Nutella, am I right?
Lastly, the Lemon Curd Éclair; bit of a hit or miss. I’m old fashioned and will not stray from my opinion that éclairs should not be fruit-based, but the combination was interesting nonetheless. The custard was consistently soft and light with a lemony flavour, and was covered in tangy lemon curd topping, garnished with mint leaves. It was a refreshing contrast to all the sweet variants we had just indulged in so it wasn’t an entirely unwelcome option.
Currently, The Éclair Factory operates six days a week from their online social media platforms and website. This also enables them to have a direct relationship with all their customers so they currently have no plans of having a brick-and-mortar store anytime soon.
Mafaza shared that they are eager to take their treats to every home in Colombo and beyond.
Instagram: @theeclairfactory_
Facebook: The Éclair Factory
Website: www.theeclairfactory.com
