Blueberry Elephant Macarons

I have no excuses. Not only have I not blogged in almost a month, I haven't baked in almost as long. A few years ago this would have been unheard of! But at the moment it's an unfortunate side-effect of my life. The last baking I did was for a dear friend's wedding in January, they asked me to make some personalised macarons for them and I was super excited to make something special. The requested macarons were purple elephants and black skulls, which was quite an interesting challenge. I just had to share the purple elephants with you guys, they are so darn adorable I can't stand it. I think they might be my favourite of all the animal macarons I've made so far (though the cats are a close second). They were also the hardest to pipe, I had to use a stencil on my baking paper for the first time.

The tusks are made from slivered almonds (I was pretty proud of this, I had a bit of a lightbulb moment in a supermarket aisle while trying to figure out what to use), and the ears are big heart sprinkles. I made about 80 of these stumpy, cute, fat little elephants, which was a rather slow and painful process. But totally worth it in the end. The filling was a blueberry ganache, while the black skulls (I didn't remember to take any photos of them unfortch) were filled with a mango buttercream. I think (hope) the macarons went down well at the wedding. Anyway I finally got off my bum and edited the few shots I managed to grab of these little dudes before I shipped them off to the wedding, so here you go!

Blueberry Purple Elephant Macarons

(recipe adapted from Trissalicious)

For the macarons:

Note: this method uses an Italian meringue. If you prefer, you can continue to use the French method I normally use. If you are a beginner with macarons read up and practice plain macarons first. BraveTart has lots of useful advice and info on the subject

Almond Meal Paste:

125g almond meal

125g icing/confectioner's sugar

50g egg whites

Italian Meringue:

125g caster (granulated) sugar

35g water

50g egg whites

Pinch of egg white powder

Purple powdered/gel food colouring, heart sprinkles and slivered almonds + black food colouring to decorate

1. To achieve the elephant shape, I cut an elephant shaped stencil out of cardboard and traced the shape on to sheets of baking paper for piping. Remember you need to make half the elephants piped to face the left, and the other half to face to the right so that you have mirror images that can be sandwiched together.
2. In a food processor, blend the almond meal, icing sugar together for a minute, then add egg whites and blitz for a couple seconds to form a paste. Set aside.
3. To make the Italian meringue, place the caster sugar in a saucepan.  Add the water and make sure that the sugar is dampened.  Heat the mixture and bring this to a boil (do not stir).  Place a candy thermometer in the syrup and take the temperature of 118°C (245°F)
4. While the sugar is cooking, beat the egg whites and egg white powder using a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment and beat at medium speed until the eggs become foamy. Continue beating on high until stiff peaks form.
5. Stop the syrup from cooking once it reaches 118°C (245°F) and take this off the heat and let the bubbling subside for a few seconds.  Pour the syrup in a thin, steady stream over the beaten egg whites while the continuing to whisk at medium speed.
6. When all the syrup has been added, (add food colouring here) continue to beat until glossy and meringue has cooled to room temperature (around 10 to 15 minutes).
7. Using a silicone spatula, fold a third of Italian meringue into the almond mixture to loosen it.  Then, fold in the rest of the Italian meringue.  (You really want to beat all the large bubbles out of the mixture, which is easily done by smearing the mixture on the bottom and side of the bowl with your spatula) Continue folding and stirring until the batter is glossy, and fluid. Take care not to overmix, the mixture should flow like lava and a streak of mixture spread over the surface of the rest of the mixture should disappear after about 30 seconds. 
8. Place 1/3 of the mixture in a piping bag with a very narrow tip (1-2mm) and the remaining mixture in a piping bag with a slightly wider (about 0.5cm) round piping tip. Use the wider tipped bag to fill in the body of the elephant, then the narrower tip to add on the legs and trunk of the elephant. Tap baking trays carefully and firmly on the benchtop a couple times to remove any large bubbles.
9. Decorate each shell with a half piece of slivered almond for the tusk and a pink heart for the ear (if you can't get big enough sprinkles, you can also use rolled pink starburst chew lollies or pipe royal icing on the baked shells).
10. Leave to dry for about 60 mins, until when you press the surface of one gently it does not break/stick to your finger. This will help prevent any cracking and help the feet to form on the macs.
11. Preheat your oven to 130-150°C (265-300°F), depending on your oven (fan-forced ovens may need to be set as low as 100°C, it really depends) . You can place the tray of piped shells on top of an upside-down roasting tray or another baking tray, for better heat distribution.
12. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Carefully test if the base of the shell is ready by gently lifting one and if it’s still soft and sticking to the baking paper, then it needs to bake for a few minutes longer. 
13. Remove from the oven and cool on the tray for a few minutes, then gently remove from the sheet and place on a wire rack to cool completely.
14. Use a black edible ink pen or a skewer dipped into black food colouring to draw on the eyes.

For the Blueberry Filling:

Note: You can replace the blueberry sauce with store-bought blueberry jam to save time

100g (1.7oz) blueberry (fresh or frozen), pitted and diced

 3 tbsp sugar

 2 tsp lemon juice

A few drops of pure vanilla extract

3 tsp cornflour (cornstarch) + 1 tsp cold water

3 tsp powdered gelatine

100g (3.5oz) good quality white chocolate, finely chopped

1. Prepare the blueberry filling first; place blueberries, sugar, lemon juice and vanilla in a small saucepan and place on medium heat. Stir over heat until sugar dissolves. 
2. Mix cornflour and water together in a separate small bowl then add to the saucepan with gelatine powder and stir over medium heat until mixture thickens and gelatine dissolves, about 2-3 minutes. Set aside to cool then blitz mixture in a food processor. 
3. Place blueberry mixture and chopped white chocolate in a heatproof bowl and stir over a pot of simmering water until the chocolate melts and the mixture combines (if chocolate splits, add 1 tsp of water at a time and stir over heat until mixture reincorporates). 
4. Chill mixture until it thickens (if it is too runny, you can melt more white chocolate into it), and then pipe mixture between macarons shells.
5. Chill macarons in an airtight container overnight to allow flavour to mature. Serve at room temperature.

Jaffa Layer Cake with Macarons

Hi! Happy New Year! Can you believe its 2015? Well it is. I know, I've been very quiet. I've been very busy. Life is craaaaaaaaaaazy. But there is always cake. I thought I should share this recipe with you before I forget how I made it. Because it's a pretty good one. Last month was my brother's 40th birthday. A big occasion like that called for a big cake, or at least a very pretty one.

My sister-in-law planned a lovely surprise party for my brother and of course I was tasked with the birthday cake. One of my brother's favourite flavours is chocolate and orange and he LOVES jaffa cakes. So I thought I would make a layer cake based on the flavours and textures of the good old jaffa cake. I made four layers of my favourite orange tea cake from Stephanie Alexander, it's always light and fragrant. I sandwiched the cake layers with orange jelly, which I set with half the usual amount of liquid so it wouldn't fall apart inside the cake (dodgy instagram innards shot at the bottom of the post). The cake was covered in a thick layer of rich but not too sweet dark chocolate and orange icing and lots of gold leaf to add something special.

I topped the cake with bits of jaffa cakes, jaffa chocolate balls and jaffa flavoured macarons. As always I agonised over getting the icing neat and smooth enough, and I'm never satisfied with it. I used my fancy icing comb to create the texture on the side, and I kinda love it. Though the gold leaf is actually hiding my very untidy edges because I got too fed up with trying to smooth the corners.

The cake went down very well with everyone at the party and looked very pretty sitting next to the delicious canapes from Simmone Logue catering (highly recommended for anyone looking for fancy party catering). My brother was not at all surprised by his surprise party since he noticed it marked on his friend's calender a few weeks earlier, and saw me loading food into our car right before the party. Doh. But it was still fun and I think he loved the cake. The jelly layers worked surprisingly well with the cake, and the slightly bitter chocolate icing was good for balancing out the sweetness of the jelly. This cake is sure to win over anyone who loves the classic combination of chocolate and orange.

Jaffa Layer Cake with Macarons

(makes a 4-layer 15cm (6", this is what I used) or 18cm (7", will result in slightly thinner layers) cake, cake recipe adapted from Stephanie Alexander's The Cook's Companion)

For the orange jelly layers:

Using two orange jelly/jello (2x85g) packets, (I used Aeroplane Jelly), prepare 3 of the same sized baking tins that you are going to use for the cake, greased and line with baking paper. Make up jelly as per instructions, but only use HALF the specified amount of water. This will ensure that the jelly will set firmly. Pour equal amounts of jelly mixture into prepared tins and chill in fridge until set (I prepared mine the night before assembling cake).

For the cake:

2 large oranges

3 large eggs, at room temperature

220g (about 2 sticks) butter, softened

1 cup (200g) caster (granulated) sugar

400g (approx 3 cups) self-raising flour

1. Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F) (if fan-forced use 180°C (350°F)) and grease and line the base with baking paper of four 15cm (6", this is what I used) or 18cm (7", will result in slightly thinner layers round baking tins (I used two and baked two layers at a time).  
2. Zest and juice oranges. Combine all cake ingredients in a food processor and blend for 2 minutes. If you have extra time and are worried about over-mixing the flour like me, blend the orange juice and zest, butter, sugar and eggs together first for one minute, then add the flour and blend for another minute. If you don't have a food processor, cream butter and sugar together using an electric beater until light and smooth. Add eggs at a time and beat in well. Add the juice, zest and flour and quickly mix until combined, avoid overbeating the flour. 
3. Split the batter into four equal portions (I used a scale to measure it exactly), and pour into prepared tin(s) and smooth with a spatula. 
4. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until golden and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool in tin for 5 minutes and then carefully remove and cool cake on wire rack completely. (Cakes can be made a day ahead and wrapped in cling film in the fridge overnight before icing)

For the macarons:

Follow these instructions to make shells, using red/orange food colouring. (Or you can use my old French method)

Prepare the orange chocolate ganache, using 100g dark chocolate with 1/4 tsp orange essence/extract, finely chopped and placed in a heatproof bowl. Heat 90ml (about 1/3 cup) thickened/heavy cream just  to the boil then pour over chopped chocolate and leave to melt for a few minutes before whisking. Chill ganache until it thickens but is still pipable, then fill macaron shells and leave in the fridge overnight to allow the flavour to mature.

For the chocolate-orange icing:

340g (3 sticks) butter, softened

400g Lindt orange intense chocolate (or about 350g dark chocolate with 1/2 tsp orange essence/extract)

1/4 cup good quality cocoa powder

1/4 cup milk

600-700g (about 5-6 cups) icing sugar, sifted (I blitzed in a food processor to save time)

1. In a heatproof bowl over a small saucepan of simmering water, melt chocolate (if using Lindt orange intense, strain mixture to remove almonds)
2. Place butter in a large mixing bowl and beat on high with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.
3. Add melted chocolate, cocoa powder and milk and beat on low for a minute to start to combine ingredients.
4. Continue beating while gradually adding icing sugar until mixture is smooth and well combined. Adjust the amount of icing sugar until the desired texture is achieved. You want the mixture to be stiff enough to hold its shape but soft enough to be spreadable. If it is too stiff, add more milk.

To assemble cake:

Jaffa chocolate balls

Jaffa Cake biscuits (I got mine from Aldi)

Optional: gold leaf to decorate

1. Trim the tops of the cake layers to remove any doming. Place one layer of cake on your cake stand or plate and carefully place a layer of jelly on top. Trim the jelly layer to the same circumference as the cake if there is any overhang. Try not to crack the jelly layer, but it is okay if it does break apart as the icing and cake will hold it together.
2. Repeat with the remaining cake layers and jelly. 
3. Crumb coat cake with a layer of icing, then chill cake for about 30 mins-an hour to allow coat to set.
4. Cover cake with a thick layer of remaining icing using an offset spatula, to achieve the texture I created on the side of the cake, you can use an icing comb like this one.
5. If you are using gold leaf, use a paintbrush to carefully decorate the edge of the cake with it.
6. Top with macarons, jaffa balls and jaffa cakes. Chill cake to allow icing to set, and remove the cake from the fridge about 30 mins before serving.

Christmas Wreath Macarons

YAYYY! December is here! Far out this year has gone by quickly. There are a lot of intense things going on at the moment, but that hasn't stopped me from getting into the Christmas spirit. Christmas is my all-time favourite holiday to bake for, I never get sick of it and never find it too cheesy (unlike Valentine's Day). So I thought I'd kick off my baking for this month with some Christmas-themed macarons!

You may remember some of my previous Christmas macarons; Penguins, Snowmen, Present boxes. This year I decided to make some Christmas Wreath Macarons. I piped them just like I piped my Doughnut Macarons, making sure to leave a big hole in the middle of each when I piped them since the mixture spreads out a lot as it settles. I'm totally not impressed with my actual macarons this time around, I underwhipped the meringue so the feet are pitifully small. But the idea is still super cute and festive so I wanted to share it with you guys.

I was torn as to what filling to fill these with, but I ended up going with a cherry flavour. Cherry is one of those quintessential Australian Christmas fruits, with so much fresh, cheap cherries available at this time of the year. I actually used frozen cherries for this, to avoid wasting time pitting cherries, but you could use fresh ones, or use cherry jam to save even more time. And for those of you on the other side of the planet, you could always substitute it with a more Winter-friendly flavour like the egg-nog ganache in my penguin macaron recipe that I linked earlier.

I love how vibrant and purple the filling is! This isn't a normal ganache, I didn't need to add any cream since the liquid from the cherry filling was enough to get the right consistency, but you can add some cream if you prefer. I found these adorable holly sprinkles online (link in the recipe below), but you can always just use regular long green sprinkles and round red sprinkles or cachous to decorate it. Anyway I'm hoping I have enough time to test out all the fun Christmas baking I have planned, we will have to wait and see. In the meantime, you can check out all my other Christmas recipes here.

Christmas Wreath Macarons with Cherry Filling

(recipe adapted from Trissalicious)

For the macarons:

Note: this method uses an Italian meringue. If you prefer, you can continue to use the French method I normally use. If you are a beginner with macarons read up and practice plain macarons first. BraveTart has lots of useful advice and info on the subject

Almond Meal Paste:

125 grams almond meal

125 grams icing/confectioner's sugar

50 grams egg whites

Italian Meringue:

125g caster (granulated) sugar

35g water

50grams egg whites

Pinch of egg white powder

Green powdered/gel food colouring, sprinkles to decorate (I used these, Wilton also has these, plain red and green sprinkles will also be fine, or silver cachous)

1. In a food processor, blend the almond meal, icing sugar and egg whites until this resembles a fine paste. Set aside.
2. To make the Italian meringue, place the caster sugar in a saucepan.  Add the water and make sure that the sugar is dampened.  Heat the mixture and bring this to a boil (do not stir).  Place a candy thermometer in the syrup and take the temperature of 118°C (245°F)
3. While the sugar is cooking, beat the egg whites and egg white powder using a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment and beat at medium speed until the eggs become foamy. Continue beating on high until stiff peaks form.
4. Stop the syrup from cooking once it reaches 118°C (245°F) and take this off the heat and let the bubbling subside for a few seconds.  Pour the syrup in a thin, steady stream over the beaten egg whites while the continuing to whisk at medium speed.
5. When all the syrup has been added, (add food colouring here) continue to beat until glossy and meringue has cooled to room temperature (around 10 to 15 minutes).
6. Using a silicone spatula, fold a third of Italian meringue into the almond mixture to loosen it.  Then, fold in the rest of the Italian meringue.  (You really want to beat all the large bubbles out of the mixture, which is easily done by smearing the mixture on the bottom and side of the bowl with your spatula) Continue folding and stirring until the batter is glossy, and fluid. Take care not to overmix, the mixture should flow like lava and a streak of mixture spread over the surface of the rest of the mixture should disappear after about 30 seconds. 
7. Place mixture in a piping bag with a narrow (about 0.3cm) round piping tip. Pipe a thin ring about 4cm wide on your prepared trays, leaving about 3cm space around each one. (Make sure to pipe these with a wider hole in the centre than you want the final shape to be, as the mixture will spread slightly)  Tap baking trays carefully and firmly on the benchtop a couple times to remove any large bubbles. Top with red and green sprinkles.
8. Leave to dry for about 60 mins, until when you press the surface of one gently it does not break/stick to your finger. This will help prevent any cracking and help the feet to form on the macs.
9. Preheat your oven to 130-150°C (265-300°F), depending on your oven (fan-forced ovens may need to be set as low as 100°C, it really depends) . You can place the tray of piped shells on top of an upside-down roasting tray or another baking tray, for better heat distribution.
10. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Carefully test if the base of the shell is ready by gently lifting one and if it’s still soft and sticking to the baking paper, then it needs to bake for a few minutes longer. 
11. Remove from the oven and cool on the tray for a few minutes, then gently remove from the sheet and place on a wire rack to cool completely.

For the Cherry Filling:

Note: You can replace the cherry sauce with store-bought cherry jam to save time

50g (1.7oz) cherries (fresh or frozen), pitted and diced

2 tbsp sugar

1 tsp lemon juice

A few drops of pure vanilla extract

1 tsp cornflour (cornstarch) + 1/2 tsp cold water

100g (3.5oz) good quality white chocolate, finely chopped

1. Prepare the cherry filling first; place diced cherries, sugar, lemon juice and vanilla in a small saucepan and place on medium heat. Stir over heat until sugar dissolves. 
2. Mix cornflour and water together in a separate small bowl then add to the saucepan and stir over medium heat until mixture thickens, about 2-3 minutes. Set aside to cool. 
3. Place cherry mixture and chopped white chocolate in a heatproof bowl and stir over a pot of simmering water until the chocolate melts and the mixture combines (if chocolate splits, add 1 tsp of water at a time and stir over heat until mixture reincorporates). 
4. Chill mixture until it thickens (if it is too runny, you can add melt more white chocolate into it), and then spoon mixture between macarons shells.
5. Chill macarons in an airtight container overnight to allow flavour to mature. Serve at room temperature.

Check out all my other Christmas recipes!

Blueberry Swirl Cake with Lemon Curd Macarons

My life is finally starting to return back to my regular routines. Weddings are hectic. And it wasn't even my wedding! Luckily for me, there was a long weekend the week after, which allowed me to rest up and get back my baking groove. So I made cake. And macarons. And lemon curd. And blueberry sauce! I love long weekends.

I'm in love with the swirly mess of icing on this cake. It's an easy way to pretty up a cake that doesn't require any precision or perfection, that's what I love about a messy finish on a cake. All I did was mix a little bit of blueberry jam into some of my regular lemon butter icing and swirled a few dollops of the icing on the cake. I was hoping for it to give the icing a purple tint, but it came out more of a deep pink. Still pretty! I love how it looks like the cake is covered in big pink rose petals.

The cake inside is a blueberry lemon cake, sandwiched together with some lemon curd. I had a ton of lemons in the fridge and blueberries were on special so these were easy choices. I stupidly didn't follow my own recipe instructions and forgot to turn the temperature down on my cake so the edges browned a lot more than they should have and dried the cake out too much, but luckily the curd, blueberies and icing helped to take away some of that dryness. I was a little too timid with the amount of lemon curd on the bottom layer, but other than that I'm really pleased with how the cake turned out.

As I've mentioned in recent macaron posts, I'm having a horrible time with hollow shells when I bake macarons in my new oven. I've tried so many different tweaks, which have only slightly improved them but not eradicated those darned air pockets entirely. I have always used the French method for my macarons since I have a huge aversion to dealing with hot sugar syrup, but I finally worked up the energy to switch over to the Italian meringue method that Trissalicious, and many other bakers use. I know from the few times I've used it that it results in a much smoother shell and is more forgiving to the little mistakes that the French method exposes. And I have a Kitchenaid stand mixer, and a sugar thermometer, so my only excuse for avoiding it now is laziness. No more! The result were these picture perfect macarons, without an air pocket in sight! I undermixed the batter slightly, so the texture was more fluffy than I would have preferred, but much better than a crunchy, hollow shell. Feel free to keep using my old French method recipe if it's working successfully for you, but I think from now on I'm gonna stick with the Italian method to save me from hollow shell hell.

Blueberry Swirl Cake with Lemon Curd Macarons

(makes a 3 layer 6 inch (or thinner 7 inch) cake, macaron recipe from Trissalicious) 

For the lemon blueberry cake:

170g (1.5 sticks) butter, softened

3 cups (about 420g) plain/all-purpose flour

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt (if using unsalted butter, add an extra 1/2 tsp)

1 1/2 cups (300g) sugar

2 eggs, room temperature

3/4 cup milk

1/4 cup lemon juice + 1 tbsp finely grated lemon zest

300g (10.5oz/about 2 punnets) fresh or frozen blueberries (I used frozen)

1. Grease and line three 15cm (6") or 18cm (7", will result in slightly thinner layers) round cake tins and preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). 
2. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together into a medium bowl. Place lemon juice and milk in a jug together.
3. Place butter and 1.5 cups sugar in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electic mixer on high speed until pale and fluffy, at least 5 minutes. 
4. Reduce speed to medium-low; mix in egg, milk, lemon juice and lemon zest. Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in flour mixture until just combined.
5. Fold in blueberries gently until evenly distributed.
6. Split mixture between the three prepared tins and smooth tops with a spatula.
7. Bake cakes for 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 160 degrees. Bake until cakes are golden brown and firm to the touch, and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean, about 40-50 mins but timing will vary depending on your tin size (if on top and bottom rack, switch cakes between racks halfway through, baking). Let cool in tin on a wire rack, then turn out. Can be stored in an airtight container for a day or so before icing. 

For the lemon curd:
170g (about 4/5 cup) sugar
100ml (about 1/3 cup + 1 tbsp) freshly squeezed lemon juice
4 tsp finely grated lemon zest
5 large egg yolks (save the egg whites for the macarons)

100g (about 1 stick minus 1 tbsp) butter, cubed

1. Stir the sugar, lemon juice and zest in a small saucepan over medium heat until the sugar dissolves.
2. Beat the egg yolks in a heatproof bowl and gradually add the hot lemon mixture. Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve.  
3. Return to the heatproof bowl and place over a saucepan of simmering water. Cook, stirring continuously, until the mixture coats the back of a wooden spoon. Do not allow the mixture to boil. It is important to ensure this cooks for long enough or curd will be too runny for your macarons and cake.
4. Remove from the heat and add the butter cubes, one at a time, stirring until fully combined. 
5. Cover surface of mixture with clingfilm and refrigerate to allow it to set, at least 30 mins.

For the macarons:

Note: this method uses an Italian meringue. If you prefer, you can continue to use the French method I normally use. If you are a beginner with macarons read up and practice plain macarons first. BraveTart has lots of useful advice and info on the subject

Almond Meal Paste:

125 grams almond meal

125 grams icing/confectioner's sugar

50 grams egg whites

Italian Meringue:

125g caster (granulated) sugar

35g water

50grams egg whites

Pinch of egg white powder

Optional: powdered/gel food colouring

1. In a food processor, blend the almond meal, icing sugar and egg whites until this resembles a fine paste. Set aside.
2. To make the Italian meringue, place the caster sugar in a saucepan.  Add the water and make sure that the sugar is dampened.  Heat the mixture and bring this to a boil (do not stir).  Place a candy thermometer in the syrup and take the temperature of 118°C (245°F)
3. While the sugar is cooking, beat the egg whites and egg white powder using a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment and beat at medium speed until the eggs become foamy. Continue beating on high until stiff peaks form.
4. Stop the syrup from cooking once it reaches 118°C (245°F) and take this off the heat and let the bubbling subside for a few seconds.  Pour the syrup in a thin, steady stream over the beaten egg whites while the continuing to whisk at medium speed.
5. When all the syrup has been added, (add food colouring here) continue to beat until glossy and meringue has cooled to room temperature (around 10 to 15 minutes).
6. Using a silicone spatula, fold a third of Italian meringue into the almond mixture to loosen it.  Then, fold in the rest of the Italian meringue.  (You really want to beat all the large bubbles out of the mixture, which is easily done by smearing the mixture on the bottom and side of the bowl with your spatula) Continue folding and stirring until the batter is glossy, and fluid. Take care not to overmix, the mixture should flow like lava and a streak of mixture spread over the surface of the rest of the mixture should disappear after about 30 seconds. 
7. Place mixture in a piping bag with a 1cm round piping tip. Pipe circles about 3cm wide on your prepared trays, leaving about 3cm space around each one. Tap baking trays carefully and firmly on the benchtop a couple times to remove any large bubbles.
8. Leave to dry for about 60 mins, until when you press the surface of one gently it does not break/stick to your finger. This will help prevent any cracking and help the feet to form on the macs.
9. Preheat your oven to 130-150°C (265-300°F), depending on your oven (fan-forced ovens may need to be set as low as 100°C, it really depends) . You can place the tray of piped shells on top of an upside-down roasting tray or another baking tray, for better heat distribution.
10. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Carefully test if the base of the shell is ready by gently lifting one and if it’s still soft and sticking to the baking paper, then it needs to bake for a few minutes longer. 
11. Remove from the oven and cool on the tray for a few minutes, then gently remove from the sheet and place on a wire rack to cool. 
12. When completely cool, sandwich shells with set lemon curd (recipe above).

For the icing:

300g (about 2 & 2/3 sticks) butter

500g (about 4 cups) icing/confectioner's sugar, sifted

3-4 tbsp lemon juice, adjusted to taste and texture

To mix: blueberry jam, or this blueberry topping (strained) + 1/3 cup (about 40g) icing sugar, sifted

Optional: fresh blueberries and lemon curd macarons to decorate

1. Prepare the icing; remove butter from fridge 30 mins before starting and chop into small cubes. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter on high with an electric mixer until smooth and fluffy. 
2. Reduce speed to medium-low and gradually add icing sugar until combined, add lemon juice then increase speed to high and beat until very pale and fluffy. 
3. You may need to add more icing sugar if your mixture is too runny, if mixture is too stiff you can add more lemon juice or milk (if it is already sour enough). The icing should be smooth and easily spreadable, but stiff enough to hold its shape.
4. Place 3/4 of the icing in a separate bowl and set aside. With the remaining 1/2 of icing add about 1 tbsp blueberry jam or topping and 1/3 cup icing sugar and beat again with an electric mixer to combine (you can adjust the amount of jam/icing sugar to taste here).
5. To assemble cake; use a long shape knife (preferably serrated) to carefully trim the tops of the cake to ensure they are level. Flip your cake layers upside down before assembling.
6. Place one layer on your cake stand and use an offset spatula to spread a thick layer of lemon curd over the top of the cake. Repeat with remaining cakes and more lemon curd.
7. Crumb coat cake with some of the plain lemon icing and then chill for about half an hour.
8. Using an offset spatula, alternately swirl blobs of plain white icing and blueberry icing over the surface of the cake. Top cake with macarons and blueberries and chill to allow icing to set.
9. Remove from the fridge at least 30 mins before serving to allow cake to come back to room temperature. Can be stored in the fridge in an airtight container for several days.

Coconut and Lychee Macarons

Helllloooo! This is just a super quick post to let you know that I'm still alive! Things are just super, super busy. These macarons are my peace offering to you for being so neglectful of my blog recently. Well actually, I wasn't actually being neglectful, I was baking heaps over the last two weekends but everything I made was a complete and utter disaster. Yep I'm a flat out, freaking mess at the moment, and so is my kitchen.

These macarons were made for an upcoming party and are inspired by one of my favourite flavours from Gelato Messina. The ganache is made with lychee puree, and I was meant to add some coconut cream but somehow totally forgot to add it to the mixture. But the coconut on the top of the shell helps to make it for it as it got lightly toasted in the oven. I'm still having super annoying issues with hollow macarons so these were not technically the best but they still tasted great so I wanted to share them with you. I'm pretty sure that it's my oven that causing the issue, not the recipe, since it's the same recipe I've used since I started making macs. Hopefully you'll have better luck than me!

Coconut and Lychee Macarons

(makes 15-20 macarons)

Note: If you are a beginner with macarons read up and practice plain macarons first. BraveTart has lots of useful advice and info on the subject

For the macarons:

100g (3.5oz) egg whites, at room temperature

1/4 tsp salt

110g (about 4oz) almond meal, at room temperature and well sifted

200g (7oz) icing (confectioner's) sugar

50g (1.74oz) caster (granulated) sugar

Dessicated/shredded coconut to sprinkle on top

1. Line two baking trays with good quality baking paper. 
2. Place icing sugar in food processor and pulse for a minute to remove any lumps. Stir in almond meal and pulse for about 30 seconds to combine. (If you don’t have a processor just sift together with a fine sieve.) Sift into a large mixing bowl and set aside. 
3. Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites and salt in a medium mixing bowl until it reaches soft peaks. With the mixer on high speed, gradually add sugar and beat until it reaches stiff peaks.
4. Add meringue to your dry mixture and mix together with a spatula, quickly at first to break down the bubbles in the egg white (you really want to beat all the large bubbles out of the mixture, which is easily done by smearing the mixture on the bottom and side of the bowl with your spatula), then mix carefully as the dry mixture becomes just incorporated and the mixture starts to become shiny again. Take care not to overmix, the mixture should flow like lava and a streak of mixture spread over the surface of the rest of the mixture should disappear after about 30 seconds. 
5. Place mixture in a piping bag with a 1cm round piping tip. Pipe circles about 3cm wide on your prepared trays, leaving about 3cm space around each one. Tap baking sheets carefully and firmly on the benchtop a couple times to remove any large bubbles.
6. Sprinkle a pinch of coconut over the top of each piped shell.
7. Leave to dry for about 60 mins, until when you press the surface of one gently it does not break/stick to your finger. This will help prevent any cracking and help the feet to form on the macs. (I find the easiest way to do this is to point a fan at the shells, but make sure you stick or weigh down the baking paper first)
8. Preheat your oven to 130-150°C (265-300°F), depending on your oven (fan-forced ovens may need to be set as low as 100°C, it really depends) . You can place the sheet of piped shells on top of an upside-down roasting tray or another baking tray, for better heat distribution. 
9. Bake for 20-25 minutes, depending on the size of your shells. Carefully test if the base of the shell is ready by gently lifting one and if it’s still soft and sticking to the baking paper, then it needs to bake for a few minutes longer. 
10. Remove from the oven and cool on the tray for a few minutes, then gently remove from the sheet and place on a wire rack to cool. 

For the lychee coconut ganache:

250g (about 9oz) good quality white chocolate, finely chopped

50ml thickened or pure/heavy cream (min 35% fat unthickened) OR coconut cream

Half can (I think mine was a 565g can) of lychees in syrup (lychees well drained and pureed, about 100g puree)

1. Place chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl and melt over a pot of simmering water.
2. Heat cream and lychee puree in a small saucepan on medium-low heat until it just comes to the boil. 
3. Add hot cream mixture to melted chocolate a third at a time (mixture may seize up after you add the first part, but will hopefully melt back down as you add the rest. If not, return bowl to over the simmering water and whisk until smooth)
4. Chill, whisking it every 5 minutes to ensure it stays smooth, until the mixture thickens but is still pipable. If mixture is too runny, you can melt in more chocolate, 50g at a time.
5. Place in a small piping bag (ziplock bags with a corner snipped off are handy for this), pipe and sandwich between macaron shells.
6. Chill macarons in an airtight container overnight to allow flavour to mature. Serve at room temperature.

Lemon Syrup Sponge Cake with Whipped Cream Cheese Icing and Berries

It's been a crazy couple of weeks. I lost my tiny, ancient budgie who has been with me since I moved to Sydney and who I thought was going to live forever. I finally, FINALLY got my Ps, so have a newfound sense of freedom (don't judge, I lived right next to a train station for over 10 years so there wasn't much motivation to drive until recently). We bought a couch. So yeah...life. Anyway. This past weekend we had my cousin from Singapore visiting for her birthday, and I demanded to make her birthday cake.

She requested anything with berries, preferably with sponge and cream cheese. So I made a simple vanilla sponge cake and soaked the sponge in a sticky lemon syrup, sandwiched it with one layer of raspberry filling and another layer of blueberry filling, and covered it in a fluffy whipped cream cheese icing, fresh berries and raspberry heart macarons. My original idea was to tint half the icing with blueberries to make it purple, and the other half with raspberries to make it pink and to ice the cake with an ombré effect. I did it, but the tinting was so faint that you can barely see it so it probably wasn't worth it.

I'm still having issues with hollow macarons in my new oven, I'm going to have to keep experimenting to get the right temperature. It's driving me nuts. Anyway, it was one of the several things that I wasn't 100% happy about with this cake, but whatever it tasted great! Everyone was saying that they loved that the sponge wasn't too dry, the filling was super tasty and the icing tasted almost like ice cream! (Sneaky shot of the innards from my cousin) Surprisingly the whipped cream and cream cheese holds up fairly well at room temperature, the cake didn't melt at all (though it probably helps that it was friggin freezing). I think the icing worked particularly well with the sponge since both were quite delicate in texture and flavour, but the icing is so great that I want to try it out with some white cake next time. Happy Birthday P!

Lemon Syrup Sponge Cake with Whipped Cream Cheese Icing and Berries

(makes a 3 layer 18cm (7") round cake, sponge recipe from Gourmet Traveller)

For the Lemon Syrup Sponge Cake:

Note: If you are new to sponge cakes make sure you click through to the Gourmet Traveller link above for extra tips. This sponge cake relies solely on the whipped eggs for leavening and it is important you follow all the steps carefully.

Sponge cake:

60g (about 4.5 tbsp) butter, melted and cooled plus extra for greasing tins

180g (about 1 &1/3 cups) plain/all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting

6 eggs, at room temperature

165g (about 3/4 cup) caster/superfine sugar

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1. Make sure your eggs are at room temp and preheat oven to 180°C (350° F) (you may need to adjust to 160-170°C (340° F) for fan-forced). 
2. Brush three 18cm (7 inch) round cake tins with melted butter, line base and sides with baking paper, grease paper with a little extra butter and then dust lightly with flour. 
3. Triple-sift flour and set aside. 
4. Whisk eggs, sugar and vanilla in an electric mixer until thick, pale and tripled in volume (about 7-8 minutes). Sift over flour in two batches, folding each batch in with a large metal spoon or spatula.
5. Fold in melted butter. 
6. Carefully pour equal amounts into prepared tins and bake until light golden and centre springs back when pressed lightly with your fingertip (about 20 minutes). 
7. Pull cake gently away from sides of tin with your fingers or carefully loosen with a knife. Turn onto a wire rack, remove baking paper, turn back over swiftly and cool completely. 

Lemon Syrup:

Zest of 1 lemon

Juice of 2 lemons, about 1/2 cup

1 cup (about 200g) sugar

1/2 cup water

1. Place all ingredients in a medium saucepan over medium heat and stir until sugar dissolves. 
2. Increase heat slightly and allow mixture to come to the boil, then simmer for about 3-5 minutes to allow syrup to thicken slightly. 
3. Set aside to cool for 10 minutes.
4. Use a fork or skewer to poke holes over the surface of your cooled sponge cakes. Use a brush or a small spoon to carefully drizzle lemon syrup over the surface of all three cakes (you don't need to use all of it, just enough to generously cover the surface of all three). 
5. Cakes can be wrapped in clingfilm and stored in the fridge overnight, until ready to assemble.

For the berry filling:

300g (5oz) berries, fresh or frozen (I used 1 punnet raspberries to fill between one layer, and blueberries for the other layer)

1/3 cup sugar
4 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
2 tbsp cornflour (cornstarch) + 4 tsp cold water

1. Place berries, sugar, lemon juice and vanilla in a medium saucepan and place on medium heat. Stir over heat until sugar dissolves. 
2. Mix cornflour and water together in a separate small bowl then add to the saucepan and stir over medium heat until mixture thickens, about 3-4 minutes. Set aside to cool.

For the whipped cream cheese icing:

250g (about 9oz) cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup (about 100g) sugar

300ml (about 1 & 1/3 cups) thickened (heavy) cream

Optional: 1/4 tsp vanilla extract or 2-3 tbsp of berry filling from above to flavour icing

1. Place cream cheese and sugar in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer on high until smooth.
2. With the mixer still running on medium speed, gradually add cream to mixture.
3. Beat on high until mixture reaches stiff peaks, take care not to over mix or cream will split.
4. Fold in vanilla or berry filling to flavour mixture.

To assemble cake:

1. Place first cake layer on your serving plate or stand. 
2. Spread a layer of berry filling over the top of the cake (I started with blueberry for the bottom layer and raspberry on top).
3. Sandwich with another cake layer and repeat. 
4. Crumb coat cake with cream cheese icing and chill cake for 15 minutes.
5. Cover cake with remaining icing, smoothing with an offset spatula.
6. Decorate with additional fresh berries and/or macarons (recipe here).

Heart-Inside Macarons (Strawberry Cheesecake and Vanilla Malt)

I wasn't even going to blog about these little macarons. I was mayyybe going to photograph them along with the cake that they are going to presented with later this week. I didn't think they were going to deserve their own special post. But I posted a little preview of these on instagram and facebook and so many people were asking questions about them, so I thought I better share the recipe with you guys!

Just a plain macaron with a tiny twist, a teeny tiny heart piped into the middle of each shell. Yes, the heart is also piped with macaron mixture, which I separated from the main macaron batter and didn't colour. I pipe the hearts using pretty much the same piping technique that I use for the full-size heart-shaped macarons that I do all the time but with a smaller piping tip; it's basically just a fat V-shape. You can also use a wooden skewer to carefully clean up the edges of your piping if it messes up slightly.

As you can see, I made a second batch of macarons with the colours switched around. The recipe below only has instructions for making one batch of macarons, you can choose which colour combination you want to use. The pink ones are made with a Strawberry 'Cheesecake' filling; a strawberry-flavoured cream cheese icing. You can even add some biscuit crumbs to the filling to make it even more cheesecake like if you want. The white ones are filled with a Vanilla Malt flavoured ganache, which is so delicious that I couldn't stop licking the spatula clean after I was done. I've included the recipe for both flavours below, so along with your colour combo you can also choose the flavour you prefer.

Someone asked me recently how long it took to get the hang of macaron making. It's a hard question to answer, in my mind I still haven't completely gotten the hang of it. I know that sounds silly considering how many macarons I've posted on the blog over the years, but I feel like I'm always tweaking and trying to improve my technique. And I still make mistakes and stuff it up all the time. At the moment I'm having a little trouble with getting my oven temperature right in my new house, so my macarons are turning out a little harder than I would prefer. I'm tempted to switch over to the Italian meringue method just to give me a little bit more room for error, but I'm so used to making them using the French method so I'm in two minds about it. Which method do you prefer?

Strawberry Cheesecake or Vanilla Malt Heart-Inside Macarons

(makes about 12-15 macarons)
Note: These macarons are a little trickier, if you are a beginner with macarons read up and practice plain macarons first. BraveTart has lots of useful advice and info on the subject

For the heart macarons:

100g (3.5oz) egg whites, at room temperature

1/4 tsp salt

110g (about 4oz) almond meal, at room temperature and well sifted

200g (7oz) icing (confectioner's) sugar

50g (1.74oz) caster (granulated) sugar

Pink food colouring, gel or powdered

Optional: Pure maple sugar to decorate (thanks to The Essential Ingredient for sending me a sample to try!)

1. Line two baking trays with good quality baking paper. 
2. Place icing sugar in food processor and pulse for a minute to remove any lumps. Stir in almond meal and pulse for about 30 seconds to combine. (If you don’t have a processor just sift together with a fine sieve.) Sift into a large mixing bowl and set aside. 
3. Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites and salt in a medium mixing bowl until it reaches soft peaks. With the mixer on high speed, gradually add sugar and beat until it reaches stiff peaks.
4. Add meringue to your dry mixture and mix together with a spatula, quickly at first to break down the bubbles in the egg white (you really want to beat all the large bubbles out of the mixture, which is easily done by smearing the mixture on the bottom and side of the bowl with your spatula), then mix carefully as the dry mixture becomes just incorporated. At this point you need to separate your mixture into two bowls so you can add the pink food colouring to one bowl. For the mixture that will be piped as small hearts, I separated about 1/3-1/2 cup mixture from the rest of it. Add pink food colouring to one bowl, depending on which colour combination you want to use. Stir both mixtures until it starts to become shiny again. Take care not to overmix, the mixture should flow like lava and a streak of mixture spread over the surface of the rest of the mixture should disappear after about 30 seconds. 
5. Place the smaller amount of mixture in a piping bag with a narrow (about 2mm wide) round tip for piping the small hearts. Place remaining mixture in a piping bag with a 1cm round piping tip. With the larger bag, pipe circles about 3cm wide on your prepared trays, leaving about 3cm space around each one. Tap baking sheets carefully and firmly on the benchtop a couple times to remove any large bubbles. Then use the smaller piping bag to very carefully pipe small hearts in the centre of each piped macaron shell by piping a tiny V-shape (here is an example video of me piping a larger version, but the technique should still be pretty much the same)
6. Leave to dry for about 60 mins minimum, until when you press the surface of one gently it does not break/stick to your finger. This will help prevent any cracking and help the feet to form on the macs. (I find the easiest way to do this is to point a fan at the shells, but make sure you stick or weigh down the baking paper first)
7. Preheat your oven to 130-150°C (265-300°F), depending on your oven (fan-forced ovens may need to be set as low as 100°C, it really depends) . You can place the sheet of piped shells on top of an upside-down roasting tray or another baking tray, for better heat distribution. 
8. Bake for 20-25 minutes, depending on the size of your shells. Carefully test if the base of the shell is ready by gently lifting one and if it’s still soft and sticking to the baking paper, then it needs to bake for a few minutes longer. 
9. Remove from the oven and cool on the tray for a few minutes, then gently remove from the sheet and place on a wire rack to cool.

For the Strawberry Cheesecake filling:

100g (3.5oz) butter, softened

100g (3.5oz) cream cheese, softened

150g (about 1 cup) icing (confectioner's) sugar

2 tbsp strawberry jam

Optional: 1/2 tsp strawberry extrac, a couple of crushed digestive biscuits or Graham crackers

1. Place butter and cream cheese in a mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer on high until smooth and fluffy.
2. Add icing sugar, strawberry jam and strawberry extract to the bowl and beat until combined.
3. If you find the mixture too runny, you can keep adding more icing sugar until it stiffens up more, you can also chill the mixture in the fridge to help it set slightly before piping.
4. Place in a piping bag, pipe and sandwich between macarons shells (sprinkle a bit of crushed biscuit crumbs on top of the filling before sandwiching if you want to add the cheesecake crust element).
5. Place macarons in an airtight container and refrigerate overnight to allow macaron flavour to mature. Serve at room temperature.

(Alternative flavour) If you prefer Vanilla Malt filling:

100g (3.5oz) good quality white chocolate, finely chopped

100ml (about 1/3 cup plus 1/2 tsp) pure (heavy) cream

50g (about 1/2 cup) Horlicks or malted milk powder

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1. Place chopped white chocolate in a mixing bowl and set aside. 
2. Heat cream with malted milk powder and vanilla in a small saucepan on medium heat until the powder dissolves and it just comes to the boil. Remove from the heat and pour over the white chocolate. 
3. Leave for 5 minutes to allow the chocolate to melt, then use a whisk to combine all the ingredients until smooth. 
4. Chill in fridge until mixture thickens but is still pipable, whisking it every 10 minutes or so. Spoon or pipe between macaron shells. 
5. Refrigerate overnight in an airtight container to allow them to mature. Remove from the fridge about half an hour before serving so they come closer to room temperature.

Waffle Macarons with Maple Bacon Buttercream

This is what happens when you leave me at home, bored on a long weekend with bacon and maple syrup. Magic! Or weirdness, depending on the type of person you are. If you're like me and believe that bacon is the answer to many problems, then CELEBRATE! This is the macaron for you. Now for those of you who are weirded out by the idea of a bacon-flavoured macaron, just hear me out first. I've been very hesistant to use bacon in any of my dessert recipes (except for this one), and so I only use it when I'm sure it's going to work appropriately well. It really does work this time. If you still don't wanna hear any part of it, take out the bacon and you still have a very cute and tasty maple waffle macaron.

 

That's right, macarons that look like WAFFLES. And taste of maple syrup and BACON. Yeah! So cute and delicious. When I first had this idea, I was worried about how I would make them look waffley, but it turned out to be very easy. I made some brown sugar macaron shells and piped extra macaron batter over the top in a criss-cross pattern. I also sprinkled some maple sugar over the top of each one to make it extra maple-flavoured.

The icing that I filled these macarons with is the magical part of this recipe. Who knew that bacon fat would make an icing sing. That's right, bacon fat. I cooked up a big batch of streaky bacon and kept the bacon fat from the pan, cooled it and then whipped it up with the butter. WOW. I know it sounds random and possibly gross, but it totally works. I went one step further and crumbled up some extra crispy bits of bacon up and added it to the middle of the macarons. I love waffles with bacon and maple syrup. I love waffle macarons with bacon and maple syrup buttercream!

To say that I'm pleased with how these turned out would be a huge understatement. I am thrilled. It's been a while since I've thought up a new baking idea that's worked out exactly (if not better) than I had hoped. Happy!

Waffle Macarons with Maple Bacon Buttercream

(makes about 12 macarons)

For the macarons:

Note: These macarons are a little trickier, if you are a beginner with macarons read up and practice plain macarons first. BraveTart has lots of useful advice and info on the subject

100g egg whites, at room temperature

1/4 tsp salt

110g almond meal, at room temperature and well sifted

200g icing (confectioner's) sugar

50g brown sugar

Optional: Pure maple sugar to decorate (thanks to The Essential Ingredient for sending me a sample to try!)

1. Line two baking trays with good quality baking paper. 
2. Place icing sugar in food processor and pulse for a minute to remove any lumps. Stir in almond meal and pulse for about 30 seconds to combine. (If you don’t have a processor just sift together with a fine sieve.) Sift into a large mixing bowl and set aside. 
3. Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites and salt in a medium mixing bowl until it reaches soft peaks. With the mixer on high speed, gradually add brown sugar and beat until it reaches stiff peaks.
4. Add meringue to your dry mixture and mix together with a spatula, quickly at first to break down the bubbles in the egg white (you really want to beat all the large bubbles out of the mixture, which is easily done by smearing the mixture on the bottom and side of the bowl with your spatula), then mix carefully as the dry mixture becomes incorporated. Mix until it starts to become shiny again. Take care not to overmix, the mixture should flow like lava and a streak of mixture spread over the surface of the rest of the mixture should disappear after about 30 seconds. 
5. Place about 1/4 of the mixture in a separate piping bag with a narrow (about 2mm wide) round tip if you want to make the waffle pattern. Place remaining mixture in a piping bag with a 1cm round piping tip. With the larger bag, pipe circles about 3.5cm wide on your prepared trays, leaving about 3cm space around each one. Tap baking sheets carefully and firmly on the benchtop a couple times to remove any large bubbles. Leave to dry for about 20 minutes.
6. Using the bag narrower tip, pipe a cross-hatch pattern (example) over the top of each piped circle.
7. Sprinkle maple sugar over the top of each piped macaron. 
8. Leave to dry for about 60 mins more, until when you press the surface of one gently it does not break/stick to your finger. This will help prevent any cracking and help the feet to form on the macs. (I find the easiest way to do this is to point a fan at the shells, but make sure you stick or weigh down the baking paper first)
9. Preheat your oven to 130-150°C (265-300°F), depending on your oven (fan-forced ovens may need to be set as low as 100°C, it really depends) . You can place the sheet of piped shells on top of an upside-down roasting tray or another baking tray, for better heat distribution. 
10. Bake for 20-25 minutes, depending on the size of your shells. Carefully test if the base of the shell is ready by gently lifting one and if it’s still soft and sticking to the baking paper, then it needs to bake for a few minutes longer. 
11. Remove from the oven and cool on the tray for a few minutes, then gently remove from the sheet and place on a wire rack to cool.

For the Maple Bacon Buttercream:

100g (7 tbsp) butter, softened

1 cup (about 150g) icing (confectioner's) sugar

2 tbsp (about 25g) cooked & cooled bacon fat (can replace with more butter)

1/3 cup pure maple syrup

Optional: crispy bacon bits (I fried up a batch of streaky bacon until it was super crisp, let it cool (and saved the bacon fat drippings) and then very finely chopped up the crunchiest bits).

1. Place butter, icing sugar and bacon fat in a large mixing bowl. 
2. Beat with an electric mixer on low, gradually add maple syrup until combined and then beat un high until smooth and fluffy. You can adjust the amount of icing sugar or maple syrup to attain the right consistency, you want it to be stiff enough to hold it's shape but runny enough to be piped or spooned.
3. Place in a piping bag or spoon mixture between macaron shells to fill them. You can sprinkle a small amount of crispy bacon in the middle of each befor sandwiching.
4. Place in an airtight container and refridgerate overnight to allow flavour to mature. 
5. Can be stored in the fridge for several days, serve at room temperature.

Cookie Monster Macarons

COOOOOOOKIE. I made Cookie Monster Macarons! It made me extremely happy. You see, the Cookie Monster is my spirit animal. It was meant to be. Even my terrible user handle stephcookie came about because I originally started writing my blog posts as The Cookie Monster, then Steph the Cookie Monster, which was just way too long so it became stephcookie. Anyway you don't care about that. LOOK AT THESE MACARONS!

SQUEE! So ridonkulously cute. They were a total pain in the butt. Mainly because I decided to make them this weekend, which turned out to be the wettest, most disgustingly humid weekend. It was not the best idea. My first batch of macarons were a sloppy, soggy mess that looked more like alien fried eggs rather than cookie monster macs. So after wasting a day of baking, I made another batch and waiting for hours for them to dry before baking. It was so bloody humid that I think they were actually less dry after all that waiting! Luckily the husband saved the day by bringing out a fan and pointing it at the stubborn macarons, and they finally dried enough for me to pop them in the oven. Success!

It was totally worth making that second batch. I want to hug them! They're not too complicated; dark chocolate ganache filling because I wanted a dark coloured filling so it would look like Cookie Monster's mouth (I was originally inspired by these awesome Elmo macarons), and plain macaron shells tinted with blue colouring (except for the white eyes) and blue sugar crystals for a bit of texture. Ooh and tiny chocolate chip cookies wedged in between the shells. If you'd rather have a less boring macaron flavour you could replace the ganache with this cookie dough buttercream. Mmm.

The cookie monster cupcake has been around forever and I love how cute they are, but these cookie monster macarons are so me and so perfect for this blog. I'm so glad I made them! For those of you who are tempted to recreate them, I would definitely not recommend them for beginner macaron makers because piping on the extra bits for the eyes makes it tricker. To make your life easier you could just bake plain blue macaron shells and use royal icing after you've baked the shells to pipe on the eyes. But I prefer when it's all part of the macaron shell, like all my other macaron animals.

So make sure you're patient if you decide to make these, rushing will only lead to alien fried egg looking things. Oh and don't pick the most ridiculously humid weather to make macarons in. It will only end in tears.

Aaand I couldn't resist making a gif. Enjoy!

Cookie Monster Macarons

(makes about 20 macarons)
Note: These macarons are a little trickier, if you are a beginner with macarons read up and practice plain macarons first. BraveTart has lots of useful advice and info on the subject

100g egg whites, at room temperature

1/4 tsp salt

110g almond meal, at room temperature and well sifted

200g icing (confectioner's) sugar

50g sugar (I use caster/superfine)

Optional: 1 tsp powdered egg whites (available from The Essential Ingredient), helps to stabilise egg whites but is not necessary, blue food colouring (preferably gel or powdered), black food colouring or edible black ink, blue sugar crystals to decorate

1. Line two baking trays with good quality baking paper. 
2. Place icing sugar in food processor and pulse for a minute to remove any lumps. Stir in almond meal and pulse for about 30 seconds to combine. (If you don’t have a processor just sift together with a fine sieve.) Sift into a large mixing bowl and set aside. 
3. Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites and salt (and egg white powder) in a medium mixing bowl until it reaches soft peaks. With the mixer on high speed, gradually add sugar and beat until it reaches stiff peaks.
4. Add meringue to your dry mixture and mix together with a spatula, quickly at first to break down the bubbles in the egg white (you really want to beat all the large bubbles out of the mixture, which is easily done by smearing the mixture on the bottom and side of the bowl with your spatula), then mix carefully as the dry mixture becomes incorporated. Place 1/3rd of a cup of the mixture in a separate bowl (you can skip this step and use royal icing to pipe on the eyes after baking the blue shells). With the remaining mixture, add blue food colouring and mix until it starts to become shiny again. Take care not to overmix, the mixture should flow like lava and a streak of mixture spread over the surface of the rest of the mixture should disappear after about 30 seconds. Mix the plain white macaron mixture to the same texture.
5. Place blue mixture in a piping bag with a 1cm round piping tip. Pipe circles about 3.5cm wide on your prepared trays, leaving about 3cm space around each one. Tap baking sheets carefully and firmly on the benchtop a couple times to remove any large bubbles. 
6. Place white mixture in a piping bag with a narrower round piping tip (I used a 3mm wide tip). Set aside and allow the blue piped circles to dry for half an hour. 
7. Sprinkle blue sugar crystals over the top of the circles, then carefully pipe two small white circles on top of HALF of the blue circles to form the eyes. 
8. Leave to dry for about 60 mins more, until when you press the surface of one gently it does not break/stick to your finger. This will help prevent any cracking and help the feet to form on the macs.
9. Preheat your oven to 130-150°C (265-300°F), depending on your oven (fan-forced ovens may need to be set as low as 100°C, it really depends) . You can place the sheet of piped shells on top of an upside-down roasting tray or another baking tray, for better heat distribution. 
10.  Bake for 20-25 minutes, depending on the size of your shells. Carefully test if the base of the shell is ready by gently lifting one and if it’s still soft and sticking to the baking paper, then it needs to bake for a few minutes longer. 
11. Remove from the oven and cool on the tray for a few minutes, then gently remove from the sheet and place on a wire rack to cool. 
12. Use an edible ink pen or a skewer dipped into liquid food colouring to draw on eyes over the white circles.

For the chocolate ganache:
Note: can be replaced with this cookie dough buttercream 

100g good dark/semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped

75ml thickened or pure/heavy cream (min 35% fat unthickened)

Mini chocolate chip cookies, to decorate

1. Place chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl and set aside. 
2. Heat cream in a small saucepan on medium-low heat until it just comes to the boil and then pour over the chocolate. Leave for about 3 minutes to allow chocolate to melt. 
3. Use a whisk to combine mixture until it is smooth. Chill, whisking it every 5 minutes to ensure it stays smooth, until the mixture thickens but is still pipable. 
4. Place in a small piping bag (ziplock bags with a corner snipped off are handy for this), pipe on one of the blue bottom shells and sandwich with a top shell that has eyes, with a cookie wedged in the middle. Repeat with remaining shells. 
5. Chill macarons in an airtight container overnight to allow flavour to mature. Serve at room temperature.