If you know me, you’ll know how I feel about macarons (spoiler alert: I LOVE them). Last year, for Christmas, I made these Christmas Pudding Macarons, which were chocolate macaron shells, filled with a milk chocolate ganache and decorated with melted white chocolate to resemble little Christmas puddings, and these Reindeer Macarons, which were decorated to look like, well, reindeers (and, admittedly, look a little cursed, but we move. This year, I’m expanding my festive macaron horizons with these Polar Bear Macarons.

These macarons are made with a basic macaron shell recipe, which is piped into the shape of little bear heads before baking. The shells are sandwiched together with a minty, white chocolate ganache filling, then decorated with giant white chocolate buttons (for the muzzle) and melted dark chocolate. They’re cute and festive, but they’re also super customisable— you can experiment with different flavours/colours of macaron shells to make different colour bears, easily adapt the facial features and change up the flavours of the filling to make these bear macarons perfect for any occasion, be that the holiday season, a birthday party, or even a baby shower!

I’ve done lots of posts about macarons here on the blog, so I won’t be doing an in-depth tutorial for making the macaron batter in this post (you can find a super detailed tutorial for that here!). Instead, we’ll be focusing on how to make the mint filling, how to pipe the perfect, bear-shaped macaron shells and how to decorate the macarons to resemble polar bears!

Table of Contents

• Mint & White Chocolate Ganache
  • Ingredients
  • Method
• Piping Bear-Shaped Macaron Shells
• Assembling the Macarons
• Decorating the Macarons
• Recipe

Mint & White Chocolate Ganache

The ganache filling needs a few hours to chill in the fridge, so it’s best to make it before you make the macaron shells.

Ingredients

You only need three ingredients to make this filling:

• White chocolate

Use a good quality white chocolate for the best results!

• Double cream

You need a smaller amount of cream for white chocolate ganache (compared to milk/dark chocolate ganache), to ensure the ganache sets firm, because white chocolate does not contain any cocoa solids.

• Peppermint extract

Peppermint extract is readily available in most supermarkets and is the easiest way to get a minty flavour into your baked goods. Usually, you only need a couple of drops for an intense, minty flavour, but I find you need significantly more when using it to flavour white chocolate ganache! As with all flavourings though, it’s best to start small and gradually increase the amount of extract, until you’re happy with the flavour (and also bear in mind that the flavour will intensify while the ganache chills!).

Method

Because there’s such a small quantity of cream compared to the amount of white chocolate, I find that the best way to make a smooth, white chocolate ganache is to heat everything together (as opposed to heating the cream and using that to melt the chocolate gently).

To make the ganache, start by finely chopping the white chocolate. This will ensure it melts quickly and evenly, so you won’t be left with any lumps of unmelted chocolate in your ganache.

Place the cream and the finely chopped chocolate into a heatproof bowl and warm gently. I do this in the microwave, on the lowest setting, in 1 minute intervals, stirring between each burst, but you could also do it over a bain-marie, if you prefer.

Once the chocolate has completely melted, your ganache is ready!

To make the ganache into mint chocolate ganache, add the peppermint extract and stir through well. As I mentioned earlier, you don’t want to add too much extract, or the mint flavour will be overpowering, but this ganache does seem to require more extract than other bakes to get a good flavour! Start with a splash, then work your way up. I ended up using about 1/8 tsp in total.

Now, just cover the filling with clingfilm, making sure to press the clingfilm directly onto the surface of the ganache (this will prevent it from forming a skin). Allow the ganache to cool slightly before putting it into the fridge to chill for at least 3 hours, until firm. Once chilled, you can use it to fill your macarons.

The longer you leave the ganache in the fridge, the firmer it will get. If you leave it for too long, it will become too firm to be piped/spread! That’s okay though, just gently warm it in the microwave/over a bain-marie again, stirring frequently, until it comes back to a spreadable consistency.

Piping Bear-Shaped Macaron Shells

Piping the macaron shells into these little bear shapes may look complicated, but it’s really not!

Essentially, the bears are made up of one regular macaron-sized circle (with a little extra on each side, for the cheeks!), along with two smaller circles on top, for the ears. I recommend using a small(ish) round tip for piping the macarons, so that you have plenty of control when it comes to piping the ears.

I’ve also created a little template, which you can download for free to use for your own macarons! While a template isn’t strictly necessary, it is helpful to ensure all of the ears are in the same place, so that all of your macarons line up with each other when sandwiched together.

Start by fitting your piping bag with a small(ish) round nozzle. I like to put my piping bag in a large glass and fold the edges down over the rim, just to make it easier to fill with the macaron batter. Fill the bag with the batter, then lay the piping bag flat on the work surface and use a dough scraper/palette knife to push the batter down towards the tip, then to pat the bag down flat. This will get rid of any extra air, ensuring your macarons bake up perfectly.

With the piping bag filled, you can get to piping your macarons. Line a baking tray with baking paper and place the paper macaron template (if using) underneath the baking paper. You should be able to see it through the semi-transparent paper, but it should not be touching the actual macaron batter.

For each macaron shell, start by piping the smaller circles for the ears. Hold the bag vertically, slightly above the surface of the tray, in the centre of each circle and apply gentle pressure, until the batter has filled the ear section of the template, then release the pressure to stop piping. The ears are small, so you won’t need to apply pressure for long at all!

Next, pipe the rest of the head. Holding the bag vertically again, start in the centre of the bear’s face. Keeping the bag vertical, guide it up ever so slightly towards the gap between the ears, before coming back down and guiding it to one side (to make one cheek). Move in a shallow arc to the other cheek, continuing to apply a constant, gentle pressure, then return to the middle of the macaron before finishing it off.

This piping technique is just a guide, though, so pipe the macarons in whatever way you find easiest. All that matters is that you create the shape of the template below (or even just a general bear shape) with your macaron batter.

Once you have piped a full tray of macarons, make sure you tap the tray firmly on the work surface a couple of times, then use a small, sharp knife/skewer to burst any air bubbles that rise to the surface, allowing the batter to fall back on itself, before leaving them at room temperature for about 30-40 minutes, until a skin forms, before baking.

Assembling the Macarons

Once the macaron shells are baked and cooled, and the ganache has firmed up nicely in the fridge, you can assemble the macarons. Start by pairing up the macaron shells, matching them as accurately as possible in terms of shape/size.

You can either pipe the ganache onto the shells, or just spread it on with a knife/the back of a spoon. Add a layer of ganache to the underside of half of the macaron shells (one from each pair).

Once you have added the ganache, sandwich the corresponding macaron halves together by gently pressing the other macaron shell down, rounded side up, onto the ganache. Macaron shells can be quite fragile, so be gentle here.

Decorating the Macarons

Now it’s time to decorate the Polar Bear Macarons! For this, you will need:

• Giant white chocolate buttons
• Melted dark chocolate (slightly cooled, so that it is a little thicker).

Place the dark chocolate into a piping bag, fitted with a fine, round nozzle. We will use this to attach the chocolate button and to pipe the facial features of the bear.

Use a small amount of chocolate to stick one chocolate button onto the lower portion of each bear’s face. This will act as the muzzle.

Then, use the remaining chocolate to pipe little faces on each bear. Place two eyes above the muzzle, then add a nose onto the muzzle itself.

Set the macarons aside at room temperature until the chocolate has hardened completely, then serve. Filled macarons are best kept in an airtight container and stored in the fridge, where they will keep for about 5 days, but they can be stored at room temperature for 2-3 days, if needed. Unfilled macaron shells can be kept in an airtight container for about 5 days, but will become brittle and less deliciously chewy if left for too long.

Recipe

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Polar Bear Macarons

Bear-shaped macaron shells are sandwiched with a minty, white chocolate ganache filling and decorated with giant white chocolate buttons and melted dark chocolate to make these super cute, festive treats!

Course Dessert, Snack

Cuisine French

Keyword Italian macarons, macaron, Peppermint, Polar bear, White Chocolate

Prep Time 2 hours hours

Cook Time 11 minutes minutes

Chill Time 3 hours hours

Total Time 5 hours hours 11 minutes minutes

Servings 11 macarons

Equipment

• 2 piping bags
• 1 small(ish), round piping nozzle
• 1 fine round piping nozzle

Ingredients

For the mint & white chocolate ganache:

• 200 g white chocolate, finely chopped.
• 90 ml double cream
• 1/8 tsp peppermint extract, or to taste.

For the macaron shells:

• 95 g ground almonds
• 103 g icing sugar
• 72 g egg whites (split into 2 x 36g portions).
• 95 g caster sugar
• 30 g water

To decorate:

• 22 giant white chocolate buttons
• dark chocolate, melted and cooled slightly.

Instructions

Make the mint & white chocolate ganache:

• Place the chopped white chocolate and cream into a heatproof bowl. Heat gently (in the microwave, on low heat, in 1 minute intervals, stirring in between each burst, or over a bain-marie, stirring frequently) until the chocolate has completely melted.
• Add the peppermint extract (adding a little at a time, tasting frequently to check the level of mint flavour) and stir through well.
• Cover the filling with clingfilm, pressing it directly onto the surface of the ganache, so that a skin does not form. Allow to cool slightly before putting into the fridge to chill for at least 3 hours.

Make the macaron shells:

• Line 2 baking trays with baking paper and place the printed templates (if using) underneath the paper. Fit a piping bag with a small(ish) round nozzle and set aside.
• Place the ground almonds and icing sugar into a food processor. Pulse 10 times, then sift into a large bowl, discarding any lumps. Repeat this process once more, so that you are left with a very fine powder.
• Add one of the 36g portions of egg white to the almond/icing sugar mixture. Mix well to form a thick paste, then set aside.
• Place the remaining 36g of egg white into the clean, metal (see Note 1) bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment. Leave aside while you make the sugar syrup.
• Place the caster sugar and water into a small saucepan. Place over a medium heat and bring to a boil. Do not stir (swirl gently if necessary). Allow the syrup to continue bubbling, while monitoring the temperature with a digital sugar thermometer.
• When the syrup has reached 114°C, turn the stand mixer to high speed and begin to whip the egg whites to soft peaks. Keep the syrup over the heat as you do this.
• When the syrup has reached 118°C, the egg whites should have reached soft peaks. With the mixer still running on high speed, carefully pour the syrup down the side of the bowl in a slow, steady stream. Once all of the syrup has been added, turn the mixer up to full speed and beat until stiff peaks are achieved and the metal bowl has come to room temperature (about 5 minutes).
• When the meringue is ready, add 1/3 of it to the almond paste mixture. Mix vigorously to combine the two mixtures and loosen the thick paste slightly.
• Add the rest of the meringue and fold it in, using a figure of eight motion, until the mixture is homogenous and comes off the spatula in ribbons— if you leave those ribbons for 30 seconds, they should level themselves out into the rest of the mixture.
• Transfer the macaron batter to the prepared piping bag. Lay the bag flat on the work surface and use a dough scraper/palette knife to push the batter down towards the nozzle end, to push out any air. Flatten out the batter using the scraper too, to knock any remaining extra air bubbles out.
• Holding the bag vertically, just above the baking tray, apply gentle pressure to pipe the two ears. Then, fill in the rest of the bear shape with the batter.
• Once the macarons are all piped, lift the whole tray and drop it down onto the work surface a few times to bring any air bubbles to the surface. Use a sharp knife/cocktail stick to burst the bubbles, letting the mixture fall back on itself.
• Set the macarons aside at room temperature to form a skin- on a relatively dry day, this should take about 30-40 minutes, but can take less time on drier, warmer days and more time on cold, humid days. Check on the macarons every 10-15 minutes or so, if unsure. The macarons will be ready when you can gently touch their surfaces without any batter coming off on your finger.
• When the macarons are almost ready, preheat the oven to 165°C fan. When the macarons are ready and the oven is hot, bake the macarons in the centre of the oven, one tray at a time, for 11 minutes. To check if they are done, place a finger on top of the shells and wiggle gently. When done, the tops of the macarons should not wobble. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely on the tray before assembling.

Assemble the macarons:

• Once the macaron shells have cooled completely, you can fill them with the chilled ganache. Pair the macaron halves up, matching them as much as possible in terms of size/shape.
• Spread/pipe the chilled ganache onto the underside of half of the shells. Place the corresponding half of each macaron on top and gently press down to sandwich them together.

Decorate the macarons:

• Place the melted dark chocolate into a piping bag, fitted with a fine round tip. Use a small amount of the chocolate to stick a giant white chocolate button onto the lower portion of one side of each macaron, to act as the muzzle.
• Using the remaining chocolate, pipe the facial details (two eyes above the muzzle and a nose on the muzzle) onto each macaron. Set aside to harden at room temperature, then serve.
• The macarons are best eaten immediately, but can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days, or at room temperature for 2-3 days. You can also keep the unfilled macaron shells in an airtight container, at room temperature for about 5 days, before filling.

Notes

1. It’s important to use a metal bowl for this, as not only will the egg whites whip up better, but you will be able to use the temperature of the bowl as an indication of when the meringue is ready. It’s also important that the bowl (and whisk) are completely clean. To clean them, rub a small amount of white wine vinegar over them using a piece of kitchen roll. This will remove any traces of fat/residue that will prevent your egg whites from whipping up properly.

The Roland-Garros macaron is a lime & galangal-flavoured macaron (which is kind of wacky, so I was EXTRA intrigued). The shells are tinted a deep yellow shade and decorated with an orange Roland-Garros logo (which I assume is printed onto the shells using an edible printer?). Unfortunately, I don’t think you can buy this particular macaron in the UK, so, of course, I decided to make my own version.

There’s not a whole lot of information out there on the exact composition of the macarons, so I just took the flavour combination (and a lot of creative licence) and ran with it! This recipe, therefore, is my personal take on lime & galangal macarons, inspired by the official Roland-Garros 2024 macaron by Ladurée.

Table of Contents

• Lime & Galangal Macarons: The Breakdown
• Ingredients
• Making the Yellow Macaron Shells
• Making the Lime & Galangal Filling
• Assembling the Macarons
• Lime & Galangal Macaron Recipe

Lime & Galangal Macarons: The Breakdown

My lime & galangal macarons are made with my classic macaron shells, which I have tinted a deep yellow colour, using a combination of yellow and orange water-based food colouring. All of the lime & galangal flavour comes from the filling: a lime & galangal curd that is lightened with whipped cream. As a nod to the design of the original macarons, I’ve dusted my shells with orange food colouring dust, giving them this pretty, orange sherbet, half-and-half look.

Ingredients

To make the macaron shells, you will need the following ingredients:

• Ground almonds: This gives the macarons their iconic, nutty taste and texture. The almonds need to be very finely ground, so don’t skimp on the sieving/blitzing steps.
• Icing sugar: One of the two types of sugar in the shells, the icing sugar is mixed into a paste with the almonds and half of the egg whites.
• Egg whites: You don’t need the yolks for this recipe, so set them aside for a different recipe. It’s vital that you weigh your egg whites for this recipe, because macarons are very particular about ratios and quantities!
• Caster sugar: The second type of sugar. This is heated with the water to form a sugar syrup, which is used to make the Italian meringue.
• Water: This is mixed with the caster sugar to make the sugar syrup.
• Yellow & orange food colouring: it’s very important that you use the right food colouring when making macarons- your food colouring needs to be a water-based, gel food colouring. For these macarons, I used the Colour Mill Aqua Blend Food Colouring, in the shades Yellow and Orange.
• Orange Edible Dusting Colour: This is optional, but I used this edible dust to decorate my shells, as a nod to the orange logo on the original Ladurée macarons.

To make the lime & galangal filling, you will need:

• Egg: You need the whole egg (yolk and white) for the curd.
• Caster sugar: This adds sweetness to the curd.
• Limes: You will need the finely-grated zest, as well as the juice, of the limes, to get a really intense, bright flavour.
• Galangal paste: A slightly rogue ingredient for a citrus curd, but if it’s good enough for Ladurée, it’s good enough for me. Galangal is a root that is used frequently in South Asian cooking- it’s often compared to ginger, but it has a more floral, slightly medicinal flavour. By adding it to the lime curd, you not only introduce some of those subtle, floral notes, you also add a little warmth to the curd, which hits you at the end of each mouthful. In the UK, galangal is most readily available in paste form, so that’s what I’ve used for this recipe.
• Unsalted butter: Butter makes the curd rich and smooth.
• Double cream: We will fold the curd into whipped cream, for a lighter, creamier mouthfeel and a structure that is more suited to holding two macaron shells together.

Making the Yellow Macaron Shells

I have done a lot of posts on how to make macaron shells here on the blog, so I won’t be doing a deep dive into that here. If you want a complete walkthrough of the process, you can find my master macaron post here.

I will, however, talk about how I achieved this gorgeous shade of yellow, because I’ve never actually made yellow macarons before, so this was learning curve for me!

Admittedly, the original, Ladurée macaron shells are a much stronger shade of yellow compared to my shells. Despite the impression my recipes might give, I don’t actually love using loads of food colouring in my bakes, so I decided to aim for a slightly softer shade of yellow for my macarons. I also prefer not to use too much food colouring when making macarons, in particular, because they are so finicky- adding too much of anything outside of the core ingredients can cause major macaron issues.

Anyway, as always with colouring macaron shells, I followed a few key principles:

• Use a water-based, gel food colouring: This is the most important thing- oil is the enemy of the macaron, so you absolutely cannot use an oil-based food colouring to tint macaron shells. It’s water-based all the way, baby. Furthermore, it’s important to use a gel food colouring, not a liquid one, as you’ll get more colour payoff with less colouring, meaning your batter/bake is less likely to be affected. I swear by Colour Mill’s Aqua Blend Food Colouring range for my macarons- for these ones, I used a combination of the shades Yellow and Orange.

• Go darker than you think: I like to add the food colouring to the initial almond + icing sugar + egg white paste, to ensure that it is fully incorporated before the macaronage stage. However, when you do this, it’s important to remember that the super-white meringue will drastically lighten the colour. Aim to get the right tone of your desired colour, in a much deeper shade, so that when the mixture lightens, it lightens down to the perfect colour! Sometimes, you can do this by using a dark food colouring in the first place, like I did with my Earl Grey Macarons. For a shade like yellow though, it’s a little trickier. In the end, I used mostly yellow food colouring, for the right tone, then darkened it up with a little orange colouring, which gave me this deep, almost egg yolk shade, which lightened to a pretty, almost banana-yellow!
• Keep an eye on the shells when they’re baking: Over-baking macarons can lead to the surfaces browning, because the sugar in the shells start to caramelise. You need to be particularly careful of this when baking coloured macaron shells, because any amount of browning will affect the colour of the macarons.

Making the Lime & Galangal Filling

Now we come to the fun bit: the lime & galangal filling! As I mentioned, this is just a lime & galangal curd, which is folded into whipped cream to make a silky-smooth, airy and fresh filling. You’ll need to make the curd ahead of time (at least an hour), so that it has plenty of time to chill and firm up in the fridge, but, on the bright side, it’s super quick and easy to make! You’ll only need half of the batch of curd for this recipe, but you can use the rest for all sorts of things (for example: as a snack on toast!), so it won’t go to waste.

I prefer to make curd in a saucepan, directly over the heat (as opposed to in a bain-marie), because I find it much quicker (it only takes about 5 minutes!) and easier. You just need to make sure you stir the mixture constantly, to prevent it from catching, and that you pass the finished curd through a sieve to remove any bits of egg (which I would do anyway, even if I made the curd in a bain-marie, so it all works out).

Start by putting the beaten egg, sugar, galangal paste (that’s the slightly… shrimpy looking? pink stuff on the left), lime zest and juice into a small saucepan.

Mix everything together well with a fork or whisk, so that the galangal and lime zest is evenly distributed throughout the mixture and the egg is completely incorporated. Then, add the diced butter and put the pan over a medium-low heat.

Stir constantly while the butter melts, then keep the pan over the heat, still stirring constantly, until the curd thickens. It should coat the back of a spoon when it is ready.

Pass the curd through a sieve to remove the zest, any large pieces of galangal and any little pieces of egg. This will leave you with a silky-smooth, lime & galangal curd.

Cover the surface of the curd directly with clingfilm, then place into the fridge to chill and firm up, for at least an hour, or up to 4-5 days in advance. The curd will become paler in colour and more opaque as it chills.

Once the curd is chilled and you are ready to assemble your macarons, you can finish the filling. In a large bowl, whip the cream until it reaches just below stiff peaks. I could have taken mine a little further at this stage, but I was being cautious!

Transfer half of your chilled curd to a small bowl.

Add a spoonful of cream to the curd. We’ll start by vigorously mixing in a small amount of cream, which will lighten the curd and make it easier to fold into the rest of the cream.

Mix together until everything is completely incorporated.

Then, fold through the remaining whipped cream, until smooth and evenly combined.

If your filling is a little on the soft side (like mine was…), you can always keep whipping it with the electric whisk. Does this undermine the whole folding process? Probably. Does it make that much of a difference? Absolutely not. Ideally, you want a firm, pipeable consistency, that won’t ooze out of your macarons too much, like this…

And there you have it- a zesty, fresh and light lime & galangal filling, ready for your macaron shells.

Assembling the Macarons

To assemble the macarons, all you need to do is sandwich two shells together with a small amount of the lime & galangal filling.

You can use a teaspoon, blunt knife or piping bag to place the filling onto the underside of one shell, before gently pressing the other half on top.

If you want to decorate your macaron shells like mine, use a small, dry paintbrush to add a small amount of orange food colouring dust to the top of each macaron. I dusted one side of each shell, to give this half-and-half effect. You can either do this once you’ve assembled the macarons, or, if you want to get this stage done in advance, you can decorate the individual shells before filling them.

Because the filling of these macarons contains whipped cream, it’s best to eat them as soon as possible after assembling. They will, however, keep in the fridge for a day or two, if necessary (as long as the cream is within its original use by date!).

Lime & Galangal Macaron Recipe

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Lime & Galangal Macarons

My take on the official 'Roland Garros' 2024 macaron flavour by Ladurée- these yellow macarons are filled with a zesty lime & galangal curd filling and decorated with orange edible dust.

Course Dessert, Snack

Cuisine French, Italian

Keyword Galangal, Italian macarons, Ladurée, Lime, macaron, Roland Garros

Prep Time 2 hours hours

Cook Time 11 minutes minutes

Chill Time 1 hour hour

Total Time 3 hours hours

Servings 22 macarons

Equipment

• 1 small(ish), round piping nozzle
• 1 piping bag

Ingredients

For the whipped lime & galangal curd filling:

• 1 egg, beaten.
• 75 g caster sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp galangal paste (see Note 1).
• 2 limes, zest and juice.
• 55 g unsalted butter, diced.
• 150 ml double cream

For the macaron shells:

• 95 g ground almonds
• 103 g icing sugar
• 72 g egg whites, split into two equal portions (2x36g).
• 95 g caster sugar
• 30 ml water
• Yellow & orange water-based gel food colouring (see Note 2).

To decorate:

• Orange edible colour dust (optional).

Instructions

Make the lime & galangal curd:

• In a small saucepan, mix together the beaten egg, caster sugar, galangal paste, lime zest and juice until completely combined.
• Add the diced butter, then place the pan over medium-low heat and stir constantly while the butter melts.
• Once the butter has melted, keep the pan over the heat and continue stirring until the curd has thickened. It should coat the back of a wooden spoon when ready.
• Pass the curd through a heatproof sieve to remove the zest/galangal, as well as any pieces of egg. Cover the surface directly with clingfilm, then place into the fridge to chill and firm up for at least an hour before finishing the filling.

Make the yellow macaron shells:

• Line 2 baking trays with baking paper. Fit a piping bag with a small(ish), round nozzle (mine was 6mm in diameter) and set aside.
• Place the ground almonds and icing sugar into a food processor. Pulse 10 times, then sift into a large bowl, discarding any large lumps. Repeat this process once more, so that you are left with a very fine powder.
• Add one of the 36g portions of egg white to the almond/icing sugar mixture, along with the food colouring (I used mainly yellow, with a few drops of orange to darken it). Mix well to form a paste with an even, deep, egg yolk shade, then set aside.
• Place the remaining 36g of egg white into the clean (see Note 3), metal bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment. Leave aside while you make the sugar syrup.
• Place the caster sugar into a small saucepan with the 30ml of water. Place over a medium heat and bring to a boil. Do not stir- swirl gently if necessary. Allow the syrup to continue bubbling, while monitoring the temperature with a digital sugar thermometer.
• When the syrup has reached 114°C, turn the stand mixer to high speed and begin to whip the egg whites to soft peaks. Keep the syrup over the heat.
• Once the sugar syrup reaches 118°C, the egg whites should have reached soft peaks. With the mixer still running on high speed, carefully pour the syrup down the side of the bowl in a slow, steady stream. Once all of the syrup has been added, turn the mixer up to full speed and beat for 5 minutes, or until stiff peaks are achieved and the metal bowl has come to room temperature.
• When the meringue is ready, add 1/3 of it to the yellow almond mixture. Mix vigorously to combine the two mixtures and loosen the thick paste.
• Add the rest of the meringue and fold it in, using a figure of eight motion, until the mixture is cohesive and comes off the spatula in ribbons- if you leave those ribbons for 30 seconds they should level themselves out into the rest of the mixture.
• Transfer the macaron batter to the prepared piping bag. Holding the bag vertically to the baking tray, pipe macarons about 2.5cm in diameter.
• Once the macarons are piped, lift the whole tray and drop it down onto the work surface a few times to bring any air bubbles to the surface. Use a sharp knife/cocktail stick to burst any remaining bubbles, letting the mixture fall back on itself.
• Set the macarons aside at room temperature to form a skin- on a relatively dry day, this should take about 30-40 minutes, but can take less time on drier, warmer days and more time on cold, humid days. Check on the macarons every 10-15 minutes or so, if unsure. The macarons will be ready when you can gently touch their surfaces without any batter coming off on your finger.
• When the macarons are almost ready, preheat the oven to 165°C fan. When the macarons are ready and the oven is hot, bake the macarons in the centre of the oven, one tray at a time, for 11 minutes. To check if they are done, place a finger on top of the shells and wiggle gently. When done, the tops of the macarons should not wobble. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely on the tray before decorating/filling.

Finish the lime & galangal filling:

• In a large bowl, whip the cream to just below stiff peaks.
• Transfer half of the chilled lime & galangal curd to a bowl (the other half can be kept in the fridge for 4-5 days and used for other bakes/zesty snacking).
• Add a spoonful of whipped cream to the curd and mix through well to lighten the mixture.
• Add the rest of the cream and fold in gently, until combined.

Assemble & decorate the macarons:

• Sandwich two macaron shells with a small amount of the lime & galangal filling. You can use a piping bag for a neat finish, or just use a teaspoon/blunt knife to spread the filling onto the underside of the shells.
• If you want to decorate the macarons, use a small, dry, food-safe paintbrush to add a little of the orange food colouring dust onto each macaron (this can also be done before filling the macarons, if preferred).
• For best results, serve immediately after assembling. If necessary, the macarons can be stored in the fridge for a day or two, as long as the cream does not surpass its original use by date.

Notes

1. Galangal has quite a strong flavour, so you don’t need a lot of it, though it will become more subtle once the curd is mixed with the cream. This amount (1 1/2 tsp) gives a subtle, floral taste and slight warmth. If you would like a more intense galangal flavour, you can increase the amount accordingly.
2. You must use a water-based, gel food colouring when making macarons. I like Colour Mill’s Aqua Blend range. For these macarons, I used a combination of the shades Yellow and Orange.
3. To clean the bowl and the whisk for meringue, rub a small amount of white wine vinegar over both using a piece of kitchen roll. This will remove any traces of fat/residue that might prevent your meringue from whipping up properly.

Macarons are one of my favourite things in the whole world- I love making them and I really love eating them. It will be no surprise, then, that I’ve created a macaron recipe for this series- not only are they delicious, but they’re perfect for afternoon tea- I mean, they’re fancy and dainty- the perfect combination! Also, macarons frequently appear on the dessert tables depicted in the show itself, so they’re right on theme!

Table of Contents

• Inspiration
• Ingredients
• Making the Macaron Shells
  • Achieving the Perfect Blue Colour
  • Decorating the Shells
• Making the Earl Grey Cream Filling
• Assembling the Macarons
• Earl Grey Macaron Recipe

Inspiration

As I mentioned, I knew I wanted to create a macaron recipe for my Bridgerton-themed dessert table- it was just a question of what flavour I would make them! I opted to flavour these macarons with Earl Grey tea- which is a type of black tea flavoured with bergamot that is very popular in the UK. Admittedly, I don’t think it was around back in the Regency Era, but no matter- it gives such fancy, afternoon tea vibes that I’m going to let it slide. If you can’t find/don’t like Earl Grey, you can absolutely substitute your favourite black tea!

I decided to colour my macaron shells (now that I have finally learned how to do it!) blue, as a nod to the iconic Bridgerton Blue colour that runs throughout the show. I also decorated the shells, just to make them that little bit fancier, with a drizzle of white chocolate and a sprinkle of tea leaves. I’m so happy with how these macarons turned out- I think they really encapsulate the elaborate, yet classic, opulence of the show’s aesthetic. Also, they taste delicious too, so it all works out!

Ingredients

For the macaron shells, you will need the following ingredients:

• Ground almonds

This gives the macarons their iconic, nutty taste and texture. The almonds need to be very finely ground, so don’t skimp on the sieving/blitzing steps.

• Icing sugar

One of the two types of sugar in the shells, the icing sugar is mixed into a paste with the almonds and half of the egg whites.

• Egg whites

You don’t need the yolks for this recipe, so set them aside for a different recipe. You really do need to weigh your egg whites for this recipe, because macarons are very particular about ratios and quantities!

• Caster sugar

The second type of sugar. Caster sugar is heated with the water to form a sugar syrup, which is used to make the Italian meringue.

• Water

This is heated with the caster sugar to make the sugar syrup.

• Blue food colouring

It’s very important that you use the right food colouring when making macarons- it needs to be a water-based, gel food colouring. It is best to use a darker food colouring than the colour you are aiming for, because the meringue lightens the colour significantly when added. Using a darker colour also means you can use a smaller amount of colouring to achieve the right shade, which in turns means that you are less likely to affect the structure of the macaron batter and more likely to get perfect macarons! For these macarons, I used the Colour Mill Aqua Blend Food Colouring in the shade Denim.

To decorate the shells, you will also need:

• White chocolate

You only need a small amount to drizzle onto the shells- this adds decoration and gives the tea leaves something to stick to!

• Earl Grey tea leaves

Or whatever tea leaves you plan to use in your filling- sprinkling a little pinch of crushed tea leaves onto the tops of the macarons adds a little bit of decoration, but also makes it clear that the macarons are flavoured with tea, so no one gets any unwelcome surprises.

For the Earl Grey Cream Filling, you will need:

• Double cream

In the US, use heavy cream.

• Earl Grey tea leaves

Or your choice of black tea leaves. It’s important to use loose leaf tea here, not tea bags, to impart the best flavour, but also to keep the amount of cream the same- the cream tends to stick to teabags, so you end up losing quite a bit when you remove them. You may have to strain out the tea leaves, but it’s much more efficient than using tea bags!

• Corn flour

This helps to thicken the filling, making it extra smooth and creamy.

• Caster sugar

Caster sugar adds sweetness to the filling.

• White chocolate

A small amount of white chocolate is added to both sweeten the filling and help it set to a nice, firm and pipeable consistency.

• Unsalted butter

Like the white chocolate, this helps the filling to firm up, but it also emulsifies into the mixture to create a super creamy, silky texture.

Making the Macaron Shells

I have done a lot of posts on making macaron shells here on the blog, so I won’t be doing a deep dive into that here. If you want a complete walkthrough of the process, you can find my master macaron post here. For this post, though, I’ll be focusing on two things: 1) getting the shells the perfect shade of Bridgerton Blue and 2) decorating them with the white chocolate drizzle and tea leaf sprinkle.

I did make these macarons a little smaller than I usually make them, just to make them even daintier! When piping them, I used a template with 2.5 cm diameter circles as a guide. This means that this recipe makes more macarons in total than my other recipes, despite using the same amount of each ingredient, but the finished macarons are ever so slightly smaller. Just something to be aware of!

Achieving the Perfect Blue Colour

As I mentioned earlier, the food colouring you use is incredibly important when it comes to colouring macaron shells. Your food colouring must be water-based (oil is the enemy of the macaron!) and in gel form, otherwise it will affect the consistency of your batter, which will, in turn, affect your finished macarons. For the same reason, it’s important to use as little food colouring as possible, so I always use a darker food colouring than the shade I want my finished macarons to be. That way, you can add fewer drops of colouring to achieve the same colour.

For these macarons, I used Colour Mill’s Aqua Blend Food Colouring, in the shade Denim. This brand of food colouring is my absolute favourite for macarons, because they have such a broad range of colours and work perfectly. Make sure you are using the Aqua Blend range, which is the water-based alternative to the standard Colour Mill oil-based colouring. The standard range won’t work for macarons!

I like to add the food colouring to the almond, icing sugar and egg white paste. Adding it at this stage means you can ensure that it is fully incorporated, so the colour of your shells will be consistent, and you don’t have to worry about over-mixing your macaron batter later.

When I made these macarons, I made a half batch (there were a lot of other sweet snacks around at the time) and used 15 drops of Denim food colouring. The reason I specify this is that, logically, that should mean a full batch of macarons would require 30 drops of colouring, but, unfortunately, colouring isn’t usually vey logical. I would recommend starting with 15 and adding more if needed to achieve your desired shade. For reference, my almond/icing sugar/egg white mixture was this colour after 15 drops:

I know, I know- it looks DARK but, as I mentioned, once you mix in the meringue the colour lightens drastically. For comparison, this is how the macarons look once piped:

And this is how the piped macarons look once they’re baked:

A much more palatable colour, right?

One final thing regarding colouring macaron shells: it’s particularly important that you keep an eye on them while they’re baking and don’t over-bake them! If they start to brown at all, it will affect the colour of the shells and all your hard work might be ruined…

Decorating the Shells

As I mentioned, I decided to decorate these shells, just to make them extra fancy. This is so easy to do, but it makes a big difference!

Melt a small amount of white chocolate (I do this in the microwave) until it is completely smooth and quite thin, so that you can easily drizzle it over the shells (I find that you don’t need to worry about tempering when you’re using such a small quantity).

I used a spoon to drizzle the liquid chocolate back and forth over half of the macaron shells- keeping my drizzles to one side of the shells. If you want a bit more control, you could use a always piping bag with a small, round nozzle (or even just snip the tip off!). I like to pair up my macaron shells before doing this, to ensure I have even macarons and know which half of the shells to decorate!

While the chocolate is still wet, sprinkle over a few tea leaves, crushing them between your fingertips as you scatter them on.

Allow the shells to sit at room temperature until the chocolate has hardened. Once they’re set, you can get on with filling them!

Making the Earl Grey Cream Filling

This Earl Grey Cream Filling is a slightly adapted version of the Ladurée vanilla cream filling I made for my Heart-Shaped Macarons back in February. This version is infused with Earl Grey tea and piped into the shells, to give the macarons a classy look and flavour!

The first step is to infuse the cream. Place the cream into a small saucepan and bring to just below a simmer over medium-low heat.

Once the cream is hot, add the loose leaf Earl Grey tea.

Stir to combine, then cover and set aside to infuse for 15 minutes.

Once the cream has infused, strain it through a sieve to remove the tea leaves. Press down with the back of a spoon to extract as much of the flavour (and cream) as possible.

Gradually add 1-2 tbsp of the infused cream to the cornflour, stirring well until it forms a smooth, creamy paste.

Put the remaining cream back into the saucepan and add the sugar. Bring the mixture back up to just below a simmer, again over medium-low heat, stirring every now and then to help the sugar dissolve and prevent the cream from catching.

Once the sugar has dissolved and the cream is hot, gradually whisk in the cornflour mixture. Turn the heat to low and stir constantly for 1-2 minutes, until the mixture has thickened.

Pour the thickened mixture into a bowl and stir in the chocolate, a little at a time, ensuring that each addition is fully melted before adding more. The mixture will start to thicken a little as the chocolate is incorporated.

Transfer the mixture to a food processor (I use a mini one, for ease!) and add a cube of butter. Pulse until the butter is incorporated, then add another cube and pulse again. Repeat this process until all of the butter has been incorporated and you have a thick, emulsified mixture.

Transfer the mixture to a small bowl and cover the surface directly with clingfilm. Place into the fridge to chill for 1-2 hours, until pipeable. If left for too long, the mixture will firm up too much to pipe, so keep an eye on it! If this does happen, you can either just spread/spoon it onto the shells, or warm it ever so slightly in the microwave to bring it back to a pipeable consistency.

Assembling the Macarons

When you’re ready to assemble the macarons, transfer the Earl Grey filling to a piping bag, fitted with a medium, open-star nozzle.

Pipe a rosette of filling onto the underside of one of the undecorated shells.

Complete the sandwich with a decorated macaron shell, gently pressing the two shells together to keep everything together.

Repeat for the remaining macarons, then serve. The macarons can be kept out of the fridge for several hours, but should be kept in the fridge if they are made any further ahead than that. If stored in an airtight container in the fridge, the filled macarons should keep for a couple of days.

Earl Grey Macaron Recipe

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Earl Grey Macarons

Bridgerton Blue macaron shells, drizzled with white chocolate and sprinkled with Earl Grey tea leaves, are filled with an Earl Grey-infused cream filling to make the perfect, fancy treat for parties, afternoon teas and watching Bridgerton!

Course Dessert

Cuisine French

Keyword Earl Grey, Italian macarons, macaron, White Chocolate

Prep Time 2 hours hours

Cook Time 11 minutes minutes

Chill Time 2 hours hours

Total Time 4 hours hours 11 minutes minutes

Servings 24 macarons

Equipment

• 1 small(ish), round piping nozzle
• 1 medium, open-star piping nozzle
• 2 piping bags

Ingredients

For the macaron shells:

• 95 g ground almonds
• 103 g icing sugar
• 72 g egg whites, split into two equal portions (2x36g).
• 95 g caster sugar
• 30 ml water
• Blue water-based gel food colouring (see Note 1).

For the Earl Grey cream filling:

• 150 ml double cream
• 1 1/2 tbsp loose leaf Earl Grey tea
• 2 1/2 tsp cornflour
• 75 g caster sugar
• 25 g white chocolate, finely chopped.
• 35 g unsalted butter, diced and at room temperature.

To decorate:

• 40 g white chocolate, melted.
• Loose leaf Earl Grey tea

Instructions

Make the macaron shells:

• Line 2 baking trays with baking paper. Fit a piping bag with a small(ish), round nozzle (mine was 6mm in diameter) and set aside.
• Place the ground almonds and icing sugar into a food processor. Pulse 10 times, then sift into a large bowl, discarding any large lumps. Repeat this process once more, so that you are left with a very fine powder.
• Add one of the 36g portions of egg white to the almond/icing sugar mixture, along with about 15 drops of blue food colouring. Mix well to form a paste with an even, dark blue colour, then set aside. If needed, add more food colouring to achieve desired shade.
• Place the remaining 36g of egg white into the clean (see Note 2), metal bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment. Leave aside while you make the sugar syrup.
• Place the caster sugar into a small saucepan with the 30ml of water. Place over a medium heat and bring to a boil. Do not stir- swirl gently if necessary. Allow the syrup to continue bubbling, while monitoring the temperature with a digital sugar thermometer.
• When the syrup has reached 114°C, turn the stand mixer to high speed and begin to whip the egg whites to soft peaks. Keep the syrup over the heat.
• Once the sugar syrup reaches 118°C, the egg whites should have reached soft peaks. With the mixer still running on high speed, carefully pour the syrup down the side of the bowl in a slow, steady stream. Once all of the syrup has been added, turn the mixer up to full speed and beat for 5 minutes, or until stiff peaks are achieved and the metal bowl has come to room temperature.
• When the meringue is ready, add 1/3 of it to the blue almond mixture. Mix vigorously to combine the two mixtures and loosen the thick paste.
• Add the rest of the meringue and fold it in, using a figure of eight motion, until the mixture is cohesive and comes off the spatula in ribbons- if you leave those ribbons for 30 seconds they should level themselves out into the rest of the mixture.
• Transfer the macaron batter to the prepared piping bag. Holding the bag vertically to the baking tray, pipe macarons about 2.5cm in diameter.
• Once the macarons are piped, lift the whole tray and drop it down onto the work surface a few times to bring any air bubbles to the surface. Use a sharp knife/cocktail stick to burst any remaining bubbles, letting the mixture fall back on itself.
• Set the macarons aside at room temperature to form a skin- on a relatively dry day, this should take about 30-40 minutes, but can take less time on drier, warmer days and more time on cold, humid days. Check on the macarons every 10-15 minutes or so, if unsure. The macarons will be ready when you can gently touch their surfaces without any batter coming off on your finger.
• When the macarons are almost ready, preheat the oven to 165°C fan. When the macarons are ready and the oven is hot, bake the macarons in the centre of the oven, one tray at a time, for 11 minutes. To check if they are done, place a finger on top of the shells and wiggle gently. When done, the tops of the macarons should not wobble. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely on the tray before decorating/filling.

Make the Earl Grey cream filling:

• Place the cream into a small saucepan over medium-low heat and bring to just below a simmer. Add the Earl Grey tea, stir to combine, then cover and set aside to infuse at room temperature for 15 minutes.
• After 15 minutes strain the cream through a fine mesh sieve to remove the tea, pressing it to extract even more flavour.
• Gradually mix 1-2 tbsp of the cream into the cornflour, until it forms a smooth, creamy paste. Set aside.
• Return the cream to the saucepan and add the sugar. Heat on medium-low, stirring frequently, until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture comes to just below a simmer again.
• With the pan still on the heat, whisk in the cornflour mixture until it is completely incorporated. Turn the heat down to low and keep cooking the mixture, stirring constantly, for 1-2 minutes, until it becomes thick and glossy.
• Transfer the mixture to a bowl and add a small amount of the finely chopped white chocolate. Stir to combine and, once that chocolate has melted into the mixture, add a little more. Repeat this process until all of the chocolate has been incorporated.
• Pour the mixture into the bowl of a food processor and add a cube of the diced butter. Pulse until the butter has been completely incorporated, then add another cube and repeat. Keep going until all of the butter has been incorporated.
• Transfer the mixture to a small bowl and cover the surface directly with clingfilm. Chill in the fridge for 1-2 hours, until firm and pipeable. If left for too long, the mixture will become stiff and hard to pipe. If needed, gently reheat the mixture to bring it back down to the right consistency.

Decorate the macaron shells:

• While the filling is chilling, decorate the macaron shells. Pair up the macarons, matching them as well as possible in terms of size/shape.
• Drizzle one side of half of the shells (one from each pair) with white chocolate. I used a spoon to do this, but you can use a piping bag with the tip snipped off, if you prefer.
• While the chocolate is still wet, sprinkle with Earl Grey tea leaves, crushing the leaves between your fingers as you sprinkle them. Allow the shells to sit at room temperature until the chocolate has set, before assembling.

Assemble the macarons:

• Transfer the filling to a piping bag, fitted with a medium, open-star tip, ready to fill the macarons.
• Pipe a rosette of filling onto the underside of each of the undecorated macarons. Press the decorated macaron shells on top, sandwiching the filling in the middle and serve. The filled macarons can sit at room temperature for several hours, but any longer and they should be stored in an airtight container in the fridge, where they will keep for a couple of days.

Notes

1. You must use a water-based, gel food colouring when making macarons. I like Colour Mill’s Aqua Blend range. For these macarons, I used the shade Denim. 
2. To clean the bowl and the whisk for meringue, rub a small amount of white wine vinegar over both using a piece of kitchen roll. This will remove any traces of fat/residue that might prevent your meringue from whipping up properly.

I’ve done a couple of posts about macarons on the blog, so I won’t be doing a deep-dive into macaron-making today. Instead, I’ll be focusing on the things that make these macarons extra special, that is, the pink, heart-shaped shells and the tasty vanilla filling. For a more in-depth tutorial for the macaron batter itself, check out this post.

Table of Contents

• Making Pink Macaron Shells
  • Choosing the Right Food Colouring
  • Choosing the Right Shade
  • Colouring the Macarons
  • Baking the Coloured Macarons
• Piping Heart-Shaped Macarons
  • Using a Template
  • Piping the Hearts
• Making Vanilla Cream Filling
  • Ingredients
  • Method
• Assembling the Macarons
• Recipe

Making Pink Macaron Shells

For a very, very long time, I was unable to master the seemingly simple task of making tinted macaron shells. I won’t lie, it bothered me- I have been stifled. I even started using coloured chocolate to decorate my macarons instead (see my Wimbledon-themed tennis ball macarons). I thought I had accepted that colouring macaron shells was a step too far for me. Still, though, I railed against the injustice: how come everyone else seemed to be perfectly capable of colouring their macarons?! What was I doing wrong? All of my macarons came out looking either the right shape and annoyingly beige, or the right colour and monstrously-formed. But the ideas that relied on coloured shells kept coming, and I kept wishing and hoping and dreaming and trying.

I am SO pleased to announce, that after many, many failed attempts, I have finally figured out how to colour macaron shells. Here’s what I’ve learned…

Choosing the Right Food Colouring

The food colouring that you use matters.

In so many ways! Most importantly, you need to use a water-based, gel food colouring that can withstand being baked. I know, I know, how specific. Nonetheless, each of these individual characteristics is super important. Here’s why:

• Macarons are a meringue-based bake, so adding anything oily is a BIG no-no. I mean, you are supposed to wipe down your bowl and whisk with vinegar to remove any traces of fat before making meringues- oil is, quite literally, the enemy. For that reason, you need to use a water-based food colouring, not an oil-based one.
• Macarons are very finicky- you don’t want to add too much of anything outside of the base ingredients, or it will affect the finished bake. Because of this, you need to use a concentrated gel colouring– you’ll never achieve the right colour AND texture if you use a liquid colouring.
• Obviously, macarons need to be baked, so it’s important that your food colouring can withstand the heat. Some food colourings (I’m looking at you, Wilton) tend to discolour in the oven, which will leave you with murky, beige shells. Not the vibe.

Listen, I tried a lot of food colourings. I’ve seen a lot of people in the US having great success with Americolor gel colourings, but those aren’t widely available in the UK, so I had to keep searching. Enter: Colour Mill‘s (relatively new) Aqua Blend colourings: these water-based, gel food dyes are specifically formulated for things like macarons and royal icings. I’m a big fan of the original Colour Mill formula, so I had high hopes for these and they did NOT disappoint. I got the perfect colour, with the perfect texture. Colour Mill, you saved my life and I will never, ever forget it. Big love.

Choosing the Right Shade

Once you have the right food colouring formula, you need to pick the shade. My advice is to use 3-5 drops of a much more intense colour than your desired shade- this way, you limit the amount of colouring you need to use, making it less likely that your macaron batter will be affected. For example, to achieve these baby pink macaron shells, I used 5 drops of the shade Candy which is a much more intense, vivid pink colouring.

Colouring the Macarons

To colour macarons, I like to mix the colouring into the egg white/almond/icing sugar paste at the beginning. I find that this makes it easier to incorporate all of the colour evenly later on. Just remember that the meringue is white, so it will significantly lighten the overall shade once mixed together. Make the mixture darker at first, then the pale meringue will bring it down to a nice pastel shade, like below!

Baking the Coloured Macarons

As good as the Colour Mill food colouring is, you do still have to be a little more careful when baking coloured shells, because any hint of browning will affect the finished shade. Just make sure to keep an eye on the macarons and take them out as soon as they are set- if you gently touch the top of a shell with your finger and wiggle it a little bit, it shouldn’t wobble on its ‘foot’.

I found that my first tray baked up perfectly, with no browning at all, but my second tray, which I baked immediately after the first, in the same oven, on the same shelf, discoloured ever so slightly and were crispier in texture. I’m no oven-expert, but I’m thinking that means the temperature wasn’t super consistent? It’s something I’ll have to keep an eye on, but it does show how specific you need to be when it comes to making macarons!

Piping Heart-Shaped Macarons

Look, my heart-shaped macarons are by no means perfect. But also, they are recognisably heart-shaped, so I’m thinking that’s a win. Anyway, a macaron’s a macaron- I don’t think anyone will be complaining!

Using a Template

Firstly, it’s really helpful to have a template for your macarons. This just gives you a guideline that you can essentially ‘fill in’ and ensures all of your macarons will be a similar size. You can download the template I created for my macarons below.

The template above is an A4 sheet, so you can print out as many as you need (though I tend to just reuse mine). To use it, just place the template underneath the baking paper on your tray. Pipe out your macarons, then remove the template before baking. That’s it! Easy, right?

Piping the Hearts

To pipe the macaron batter into heart shapes, you want to use a small(ish), round nozzle (the one I used was about 6mm in diameter). This just gives you a little bit more control and helps to define the thinner parts of the heart a little more.

Essentially, what you’re going to do is pipe two ‘baby’ macarons in each of the two curves of the heart, but drag the piping tip down to the bottom of the shape before finishing each side off. So, holding the bag vertically to the tray as always, you’ll apply pressure at the top, then drag it down towards the centre, keeping the bag vertical and easing up on the pressure a little as you go to make the ‘point’.

Then, repeat the same process for the other side and you’ll have a little heart. While the batter is still wet, you can always use a cocktail stick to fix the shape up a bit, if you want. Once you’ve piped the whole tray, give it a good tap on the work surface to bring any air bubbles to the surface, pop any remaining bubbles with a cocktail stick, then set the heart-shaped macarons aside to form a skin before baking, just like you would with normal macarons.

One note here: I noticed that, when making these heart-shaped macarons, the batter seems to stretch a lot further and, so, this recipe makes way more macarons (24 compared to 16!). I think this is because the macarons are piped more thinly, as a result of the shaping. Honestly, though, I’m not complaining- it just means more macarons for me! It is something to take note of, however.

Making Vanilla Cream Filling

For Christmas last year, my dad got me the Ladurée macaron recipe book and, let me tell you, I was very excited about it! I usually fill my macarons with a milk chocolate ganache because it is just so tasty, but I really wanted to broaden my filling horizons a little bit, so I decided to have a look through the book. I decided to try out Vanilla Cream filling (p.34-5) for these heart-shaped macarons, because I thought it would look pretty inside the pink shells.

I have to admit, I was worried about this. I knew it could end up being really sweet. It… absolutely was. I tasted it by itself and, honestly, it was even too sweet for me, with my sweetest-of-all-sweet-teeth. It appeared that my concerns were justified. However, once you sandwich it into the macaron, some sort of crazy magic happens and it ends up being… delicious? I can’t figure it out, because I’ve never thought of macaron shells as overly un-sweet, but somehow it just all balances out and works. Admittedly, if you don’t like vanilla you probably won’t love this filling, but if you do? Yep, can confirm: it’s good.

Ingredients

• Double cream

As always, use heavy cream if you live in the US.

• Cornflour

You essentially start this filling by making an eggless custard, so the cornflour is needed to thicken it.

• Vanilla bean paste

The original recipe calls for a proper vanilla bean pod, but I wanted to try using vanilla bean paste instead for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the paste is very good value for money, so it’s a slightly cheaper alternative than using a pod. Secondly, I scaled down the recipe, so I figured it was just easier to use the paste than half a pod…

One thing with vanilla bean paste, though: it’s a lot more intense than it thinks it is! On the little container of the paste, it says that one bean is equivalent to 1 tbsp of paste. I mean… maybe? But using 1 tbsp of paste is going to knock you sideways in a way that an infusion of a single vanilla bean will not. For reference, I used 1/4 tsp of the paste in place of 1/2 a vanilla bean and it was plenty vanilla-y.

• Caster sugar

You could probably use granulated sugar, but it’s easiest to use caster sugar because it dissolves more quickly.

• White chocolate

Use a good-quality white chocolate, because you only need a little bit and it will make your filling taste even better. For this recipe, the chocolate needs to be finely chopped, so make sure you do that beforehand.

• Unsalted butter

This needs to be at room temperature, so that it incorporates into the other ingredients evenly. You’ll also want to dice it into small cubes, so that you can add it to the mixture a little at a time.

• Salt

This was not in the original recipe, but, as I mentioned, this filling is super sweet, so I think adding a little salt just helps to balance things out a bit.

Method

Start by mixing 2 tbsp of the cream into the cornflour in a large bowl. It will be quite a stiff paste, but it will loosen out later. Set that aside.

Place the rest of the cream into a small saucepan, along with the vanilla bean paste and the caster sugar, over low heat. Gently bring to just below a simmer- you should see small bubbles appear around the edge of the pan.

Add the hot cream into the cornflour mixture, a little at a time, whisking vigorously until you have a smooth custard. Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook over low heat, whisking continuously, until the custard thickens slightly and is just about to come to a simmer.

Remove the custard from the heat and pour into a small bowl. Add a small amount of the chopped white chocolate and stir, using a spatula, until it has melted into the custard. Add a little more chocolate, stir until melted, and repeat this process until all of the chocolate has been added.

At this point, transfer the mixture to a food processor (I used a mini one, because this isn’t a huge quantity, but you could use a standard-sized one, if you prefer). Add a few cubes of the room temperature butter and process until the butter has been fully incorporated. Add a few more cubes, then blitz again. Repeat this process until all of the butter has been added and the mixture is smooth and thick.

Transfer the filling to a bowl and cover with clingfilm, making sure to press it directly onto the surface so that the filling doesn’t form a skin. The original recipe then says to place the mixture into the fridge to firm up, for about 2 hours. I did this, but as you’ll see, it got super stiff- I’m wondering if I would have been better off just filling the macarons at this point? Or perhaps chilling it for less time?

Nevertheless, here is my filling after 2 hours in the fridge. I mean, that’s not spreadable in any way, shape or form, let alone pipeable!

To bring it back to a more workable consistency, I transferred the filling to a heatproof bowl and microwaved it, on the lowest setting, in a couple of 10 second bursts until it had softened ever so slightly. At that point, I used an electric hand mixer to whip it, much like I would whip butter when making a buttercream, until it was soft and smooth and fluffy. This worked perfectly, and I think that whipping it actually prevented it from setting quite so solid when I put the filled macarons back in the fridge, so I would definitely do it again.

Assembling the Macarons

When you make the filling, it won’t look like there’s much of it, but there’s plenty to fill one batch of these heart-shaped macarons. Because it is very sweet, you don’t need very much of it- just a nice, even, relatively thin layer! You could pipe it, but I just spread it onto the shells with the back of a teaspoon because I was feeling lazy and I think it still looks really pretty.

Once assembled, you’ll need to store the macarons in an airtight container in the fridge, where they will keep for about 3-5 days.

Recipe

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Heart-Shaped Macarons

The 14th of February is fast approaching and, whether you'll be celebrating Valentine's, Galentine's or just getting through another wintery Wednesday, these pink, heart-shaped macarons with a vanilla cream filling are the perfect treat to make your day super-sweet!

Course Dessert, Snack

Keyword Heart, Italian macarons, macaron, Valentine’s Day, Vanilla

Prep Time 2 hours hours

Cook Time 11 minutes minutes

Chilling Time 2 hours hours

Total Time 4 hours hours 11 minutes minutes

Servings 24 Macarons

Ingredients

For the vanilla cream filling:

• 110 ml double cream
• 2 1/4 tsp corn flour
• 1/4 tsp vanilla bean paste
• 50 g caster sugar
• 50 g white chocolate, finely chopped.
• 55 g unsalted butter, diced and at room temperature.

For the macaron shells:

• 95 g ground almonds
• 103 g icing sugar
• 72 g egg whites, split into two equal portions (2x36g).
• 95 g caster sugar
• 30 ml water
• pink gel food colouring (see Note 1).

Instructions

Make the vanilla cream filling:

• Whisk the cornflour and 2 tbsp of the cream together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
• Place the remaining cream, vanilla bean paste and caster sugar into a small saucepan over low heat. Stirring every now and then, gently bring to just below a simmer.
• Pour the hot cream into the cornflour mixture, a little at a time, whisking continuously, until all of the cream has been added and the mixture is smooth.
• Return the mixture to the saucepan and place over low heat, whisking continuously, until custard thickens slightly and reaches just below a simmer again.
• Pour the custard back into the bowl, then add a small amount of the chopped white chocolate. Stir, using a spatula, until the chocolate has melted into the custard. Repeat this process until all of the chocolate has been incorporated.
• Transfer the mixture to a food processor and add a few cubes of the room temperature butter. Process until the butter is fully incorporated into the custard mixture, then repeat this process until all of the butter has been incorporated. The mixture should be thick, pale and fluffy at this point.
• Transfer the mixture to a bowl, cover with clingfilm, making sure to press the clingfilm directly onto the surface of the filling to prevent it from forming a skin, then place into the fridge to chill for at least 2 hours.

Make the macaron shells:

• Line 2 baking trays with baking paper. Fit a piping bag with a small(ish), round nozzle (mine was 6mm in diameter) and set aside.
• Place the ground almonds and icing sugar into a food processor. Pulse 10 times, then sift into a large bowl, discarding any large lumps. Repeat this process once more, so that you are left with a very fine powder.
• Add one of the 36g portions of egg white to the almond/icing sugar mixture, along with 3-5 drops of pink food colouring. Mix well to form a paste with an even, deep pink colour, then set aside.
• Place the remaining 36g of egg white into the clean (see Note 2), metal bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment. Leave aside while you make the sugar syrup.
• Place the caster sugar into a small saucepan with the 30ml of water. Place over a medium heat and bring to a boil. Do not stir- swirl gently if necessary. Allow the syrup to continue bubbling, while monitoring the temperature with a digital sugar thermometer.
• When the syrup has reached 114°C, turn the stand mixer to high speed and begin to whip the egg whites to soft peaks. Keep the syrup over the heat.
• Once the sugar syrup reaches 118°C, the egg whites should have reached soft peaks. With the mixer still running on high speed, carefully pour the syrup down the side of the bowl in a slow, steady stream. Once all of the syrup has been added, turn the mixer up to full speed and beat for 5 minutes, or until stiff peaks are achieved and the metal bowl has come to room temperature.
• When the meringue is ready, add 1/3 of it to the pink almond mixture. Mix vigorously to combine the two mixtures and loosen the thick paste.
• Add the rest of the meringue and fold it in, using a figure of eight motion, until the mixture is cohesive and comes off the spatula in ribbons- if you leave those ribbons for 30 seconds they should level themselves out into the rest of the mixture.
• Transfer the macaron batter to the prepared piping bag. Holding the bag vertically to the baking tray, pipe heart shapes with the batter (see Note 3).
• Once the macarons are piped, lift the whole tray and drop it down onto the work surface a few times to bring any air bubbles to the surface. Use a sharp knife/cocktail stick to burst any remaining bubbles, letting the mixture fall back on itself.
• Set the macarons aside at room temperature to form a skin- on a relatively dry day, this should take about 30-40 minutes, but can take less time on drier, warmer days and more time on cold, humid days. Check on the macarons every 10-15 minutes or so, if unsure. The macarons will be ready when you can gently touch their surfaces without any batter coming off on your finger.
• When the macarons are almost ready, preheat the oven to 165°C fan. When the macarons are ready and the oven is hot, bake the macarons in the centre of the oven, one tray at a time, for 11 minutes. To check if they are done, place a finger on top of the shells and wiggle gently. When done, the tops of the macarons should not wobble. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely on the tray.

To assemble the macarons:

• Once the macaron shells have cooled completely, check the consistency of the filling. If it is too solid, warm it very gently in the microwave, until it softens slightly, then use an electric hand whisk to beat the filling, until it is smooth, fluffy and spreadable/pipeable.
• Pair the macarons up, trying to match them in terms of size/shape. Pipe/spread a small amount of vanilla cream filling onto the underside of half of the shells, then sandwich the corresponding half on top.
• Store the assembled macarons in an airtight container in the fridge. Kept like this, the macarons will keep for 3-5 days.

Notes

1. The type of colouring you use is very important. You need to use a water-based, concentrated gel food colouring that can withstand baking. For these macarons, I used 5 drops of Colour Mill‘s Aqua Blend in the shade Candy. 
2. To clean the bowl and the whisk for meringue, rub a small amount of white wine vinegar over both using a piece of kitchen roll. This will remove any traces of fat/residue that might prevent your meringue from whipping up properly.
3. For more detailed instructions on how to pipe heart-shaped macarons, and to find the template I created for this purpose, please go to the ‘Piping the Hearts’ section in the post above.

A few days ago, I shared my recipe for Christmas Pudding Macarons: chocolate macarons, filled with dark chocolate ganache and decorated to look like mini Christmas puddings. But! What you don’t know is that, when I made those macarons, I also made another (equally festive) version. Let me introduce you, then, to my Reindeer Macarons.

Fear not, just like the Christmas Pudding Macarons, which contained no actual Christmas pudding, these Reindeer Macarons contain no actual reindeer. They are, however, decorated to look like cute little Rudolph faces. They’re fun, they’re festive and they’re oh-so tasty.

To keep things simple, I’m not going to do a full post here about how to make the macaron shells and ganache filling. The full recipe is down below, but you can find the more in-depth walkthrough, with photos and all of my tips and tricks for perfect macaron-making, on the Christmas Pudding Macaron post. For today, let’s just focus on how to make those cute little reindeer faces!

Table of Contents

• Ingredients
• To Decorate the Macaron Shells:
• To Assemble the Reindeer Macarons
• To Store the Reindeer Macarons
• Recipe

Ingredients

First of all, you will need:

• Baked and cooled (but unfilled) chocolate macaron shells. You can find my tutorial for these here.
• Chilled dark chocolate ganache, for filling. You can find my tutorial for this here too!

To decorate the macarons, you will need:

• Melted dark chocolate

You only need a tiny bit- just to stick the sweets onto the macaron shells and make the pupils. For ease, I recommend putting this into a piping bag, fitted with a fine, round tip (though you could just use a cocktail stick to ‘dot’ it on, if you prefer).

If you can’t be bothered with the chocolate, you could always just use a small amount of the ganache filling. The decorations won’t be stuck on quite so securely, but they will still look good.If you do this, I would recommend remelting a small amount of ganache and using the cocktail stick ‘dotting’ method- the chilled ganache will be too stiff to go through the fine piping nozzle, but the warmed stuff will be too oozy!

• Red Jelly Tots

Any small/medium red sweet like this will work- I like Jelly Tots because they kind of make it look like the noses are lit up, but red Smarties or M&M’s would also look great.

• White chocolate chips

These are for the reindeers’ eyes. Try to get the flatter chips if you can- the ones with the little point at the top will still work, but they might be a bit more… stare-y? You could also buy pre-made eye sprinkles, if you want to make your life a bit easier.

• Salted pretzels

Please, please, for the love of all things Christmas, make sure you get plain, salted pretzels (not sour cream and chive). The saltiness really compliments the chocolate-y macaron. While the pretzels are a different shape to an antler, they still somehow give that antler-y vibe!

To Decorate the Macaron Shells:

To start off, you want to pair up your macarons. I like to do this before I start decorating, so I know which shells to decorate and don’t get caught out at the end with a tiny shell and a huge shell having to be sandwiched together somehow! Aim to match the shells as closely as possible, both in terms of size and shape.

Once you have your macarons paired up, you’ll need to decorate half of them (one from each pair). To do this, use the dark chocolate to ‘glue’ the sweets onto the domed surface of each shell. For each shell, you will need one Jelly Tot nose and two white chocolate chip eyes. Once the features have been attached, add the pupils to the eyes by adding a small dot of chocolate to the centre of each chocolate chip.

Set the decorated shells aside at room temperature for the chocolate to harden- this will secure the sweets and make the shells easier to handle.

To Assemble the Reindeer Macarons

Once the chocolate has hardened, you can assemble the macarons. I like to pipe the ganache filling, for more precision, but you can also spoon/spread it onto the shells, if you prefer.

Pipe a dollop of ganache onto the underside of an undecorated macaron. Press two pretzels into the ganache, so that they both poke out the top a little, to act as the antlers. Pipe another, larger dollop of ganache on top, then press the decorated shell on top. The antlers should now be sandwiched in between the shells and two layers of ganache- this will help to keep them secure. Repeat this process for the remaining macarons and you’re done!

To Store the Reindeer Macarons

Filled macarons are best kept in an airtight container and stored in the fridge, where they will keep for about 5 days, but they can be stored at room temperature for 2-3 days, if needed. 

Unfilled macaron shells can be kept in an airtight container for 5 days, but will start becoming more brittle and less chewy if left for too long.

…And that’s how to make these super cute Reindeer Macarons. As I mentioned, you can find a more detailed walkthrough for making the macaron shells and the ganache on the Christmas Pudding Macaron post. Let me know if you try out this recipe- I’d love to hear about it!

Gemma

xxx

Recipe

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Reindeer Macarons

Chocolate Italian macarons, filled with dark chocolate ganache and decorated to look like little reindeer faces 🦌✨

Course Dessert, Snack

Keyword Chocolate, chocolate ganache, Chocolate macaron, Italian macarons, macaron, Reindeer

Prep Time 2 hours hours

Cook Time 11 minutes minutes

12 hours hours

Servings 15 macarons

Ingredients

For the dark chocolate ganache:

• 120 g dark chocolate
• 180 ml double cream

For the chocolate macarons:

• 85 g ground almonds
• 80 g icing sugar
• 23 g cocoa powder
• 72 g egg whites, split into 2x36g portions.
• 105 g caster sugar
• 30 ml water

To decorate:

• 20 g dark chocolate, melted (see Note 1).
• 15 red Jelly Tots (see Note 2).
• 30 white chocolate chips
• 30 salted pretzels

Instructions

Make the dark chocolate ganache:

• Finely chop the chocolate and put it into a small, heatproof bowl.
• Place the cream into a small saucepan over medium heat. Stirring frequently, allow it to come to just below a simmer (you will see small bubbles start to form around the edge of the pan), before pouring it over the chopped chocolate.
• Allow to stand for 1-2 minutes, then stir until the chocolate has completely melted and you have a smooth mixture. Cover the surface directly with clingfilm (to prevent the ganache from forming a skin), then allow to cool slightly before putting into the fridge to set overnight.

Make the chocolate macarons:

• Line 2 baking trays with baking paper. Fit a piping bag with a medium-sized round nozzle and set aside.
• Place the ground almonds, icing sugar and cocoa powder into a food processor. Pulse 10 times, then sift into a large bowl, discarding any large lumps. Repeat this process once more, so that you are left with a very fine powder.
• Add one of the 36g portions of egg white to the dry ingredients. Mix well to form a paste, then set aside.
• Place the remaining 36g of egg white into the clean, metal bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment. Set aside while you make the sugar syrup.
• Place the caster sugar into a small saucepan with the 30ml of water. Place over a medium heat and bring to a boil. Do not stir- swirl gently if necessary. Allow the syrup to continue bubbling, monitoring the temperature with a digital sugar thermometer.
• When the syrup has reached 114°C, turn the stand mixer to high speed and begin to whip the egg whites to soft peaks. Keep the syrup over the heat.
• When the sugar syrup has reached 118°C and the egg whites have reached soft peaks, with the mixer still on high, pour the syrup down the side of the bowl in a slow, steady stream. Once all of the syrup has been added, turn the mixer up to full speed and beat for 5 minutes, or until stiff peaks are achieved and the metal bowl has come to room temperature.
• When the meringue is ready, add 1/3 of it to the cocoa and almond mixture. Mix vigorously to combine the two mixtures and loosen the thick paste.
• Add the rest of the meringue and fold it in, using a figure of eight motion, until the mixture is cohesive and comes off the spatula in ribbons- if you leave those ribbons for 30 seconds, they should level themselves out into the rest of the mixture.
• Transfer the macaron batter to the prepared piping bag. Holding the bag vertically to the baking tray, apply gentle pressure to pipe circular 'blobs' that are about 4cm in diameter.
• Once the macarons are piped, lift the whole tray and drop it down onto the work surface a few times to bring any air bubbles to the surface. Use a sharp knife/cocktail stick to burst any remaining bubbles, letting the mixture fall back on itself.
• Set the macarons aside at room temperature to form a skin- on a relatively dry day, this should take about 30-40 minutes, but can take less time on drier, warmer days and more time on cold, humid days. Check on the macarons every 10-15 minutes or so, if unsure. The macarons will be ready when you can gently touch their surfaces without any batter coming off on your finger.
• When the macarons are almost ready, preheat the oven to 165°C fan. Bake the macarons in the centre of the oven, one tray at a time, for 11 minutes. To check if they are done, place a finger on top of the shells and wiggle gently. When done, the tops of the macarons should not wobble. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely on the tray.

To decorate:

• Once the macaron shells are cool, pair them up, so that each pair is evenly matched in terms of size and shape. You will be decorating half of the shells, one from each pair.
• Place the melted chocolate into a piping bag, fitted with a fine, round tip. Use the chocolate as 'glue' to stick one red Jelly Tot (as the reindeer's nose) and two white chocolate chips (as the eyes) onto the shells as pictured. Then, pipe two small dots of chocolate in the centre of each chocolate chip, for the pupils. Leave the shells to sit at room temperature until the chocolate has hardened.

To assemble:

• Once the chocolate on the shells has hardened, transfer the chilled ganache to a piping bag, fitted with a medium round nozzle. Add a dollop of ganache to the underside of one of undecorated macaron shells then press two pretzels into it, so that they poke up over the edge. This will help to keep the pretzel 'antlers' in place.
• Add another dollop of ganache in the centre, then sandwich the decorated shell on top. Repeat for the remaining macaron pairs.
• The macarons are best eaten immediately, but can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days, or at room temperature for 2-3 days. You can also keep the unfilled macaron shells in an airtight container, at room temperature for about 5 days, before filling.

Notes

1. If you don’t need the decoration on your macarons to be super secure (i.e. if you aren’t transporting them anywhere) you can just use some of the dark chocolate ganache to stick the eyes/nose on and add the pupils. I would recommend, remelting a small amount of the ganache and dipping a cocktail stick into it to ‘dot’ the ganache onto the macaron as glue/white chocolate chips for the pupils.
2. I like the look of red Jelly Tots for the noses, because I think they make it look like the noses are lit up, but you could use any small red sweet- red Smarties or M&Ms would also work well. 

Full disclosure: these Christmas Pudding Macarons have absolutely NO Christmas Pudding in them- sorry, is that false advertising? They’re actually just plain old chocolate macarons, decorated to look like mini Christmas Puddings. Then again, I cannot in good conscience apologise for anything to do with these macarons because they are THAT delicious, so consider my previous apology revoked.

I’ve already posted a recipe for plain macarons, filled with milk chocolate ganache, on the blog- you can find that here. hile these may be chocolate macarons, the process is super similar, so you might notice a lot of overlap from that post. No matter though, chocolate macarons are next LEVEL, so chocolate macarons I must show you how to make.

I always make Italian Macarons (no, I STILL have not managed to conquer the elusive French Macaron…), which involve making a sugar syrup. This sounds scary, but I find it SO much easier to achieve successful macarons with this method. You can read more about the difference between the macaron types on that previous post.

Here we go!

Table of Contents

• Christmas Pudding Macarons: Explained
• Ingredients
• How to Make Dark Chocolate Ganache
• How to Make Chocolate Macarons
• How to Decorate the Macarons
• How to Assemble the Macarons
• Macaron-Making 101: Tips and Tricks for Perfect Macarons
• How to Store Macarons
• Recipe

Christmas Pudding Macarons: Explained

Like I said, these macarons are just basic chocolate macarons. Making chocolate macarons is super easy- they just need one extra ingredient: cocoa powder.

To make the macarons look like Christmas puddings, you decorate half of the baked and cooled macaron shells with white chocolate and festive sprinkles. Totally doable, right?

I opted to fill these macarons with dark chocolate ganache, as opposed to my preferred milk chocolate ganache. The main reason for this was the layer of white chocolate on top- I figured the bitter dark chocolate would contrast nicely with the sweet decoration. Let me tell you, I’m not a big dark chocolate person- it’s typically much too bitter for me, but, somehow, in the middle of these macarons, it’s absolutely delicious! Don’t get me wrong- I’m still a milk chocolate ganache girl through AND through, but honestly, I like the dark chocolate ganache-filled macarons too (and, more importantly, I could eat them without coughing and spluttering from the bitterness, so take from that what you will).

Ingredients

To make these Christmas Pudding macarons, you will need:

• Dark chocolate

This is for the ganache. You can use milk chocolate, if you prefer, but you would need to use 150g of chocolate and 150ml of cream, to make the same amount (and same consistency) of ganache.

• Double cream

Also for the ganache. If you are in the US, use heavy cream.

• Ground almonds

Macarons are, at heart, an almond cookie, so almonds you must have.

• Icing sugar

One of the two types of sugar in this recipe- this icing sugar will be mixed with the almonds, cocoa powder and half of the egg whites to form a paste.

• Cocoa powder

The ingredient that makes these macarons chocolate-y. Use a good quality cocoa powder (not a drinking chocolate- they aren’t the same thing!).

• Egg whites

You don’t need the yolks for this recipe, so save them for another bake. For the amount listed in this recipe, I typically need just under 2 eggs’ worth of white.

I know the measurements for the egg whites sound super weird and specific, but it’s really important that the ingredient ratios for this recipe are correct, because macarons are notoriously finicky. I find that the best way to weight out egg whites is to crack (and separate, at the same time) the egg directly into a bowl that is set over a digital scale- that way, you can weigh the white as it drips out and don’t have to mess around with trying to scoop some out afterwards. Make sure you don’t get any yolk in the white at this stage, because this will prevent the whites from whipping up properly.

• Caster sugar

The second of the two sugars- the caster sugar is made into a sugar syrup and added to the egg whites to form a meringue.

• Water

I nearly didn’t mention this here because, well, it’s water, but it’s an important part of the recipe, so I didn’t want to risk anyone skipping over it! Perhaps I am just projecting- I have a tendency to forget water when it is added to recipes. The water is added to the caster sugar to make the syrup.

You will also need the following, for decorating the macaron shells:

• White chocolate

You don’t need a lot, so make sure you use a good quality one for maximum flavour.

• Holly leaf & berry sprinkles

This one is niche, I know, but it makes decorating these macarons SO much easier. I found mine at Waitrose, but you could also use some icing or extra chocolate, dyed red/green, or even red/green writing icing (which I have used before) to pipe little berries and leaves, if you cannot find any similar sprinkles.

How to Make Dark Chocolate Ganache

Make the ganache filling the day before you plan to assemble the macarons, so that it has time to firm up in the fridge. Start by finely chopping the dark chocolate and placing it into a heatproof bowl.

Place the cream into a small saucepan over medium heat, and allow to come to just below a simmer- you will see small bubbles starting to form around the edge of the pan. When the cream is hot, pour it over the chopped chocolate.

Allow to stand for a minute or two, then stir until all of the chocolate has melted and a smooth, homogenous ganache has formed. It’s important to let the ingredients stand, unstirred, for a couple of minutes before stirring, otherwise the cream will cool down too quickly and not melt the chocolate properly. If this does happen, gently heat the ganache, stirring frequently, until it is smooth.

Cover the ganache with cling film, pressing it directly onto the surface so a skin does not form. Allow the ganache to cool slightly before putting it into the fridge to chill and firm up overnight.

How to Make Chocolate Macarons

Start out by lining 2 baking trays with baking paper. You don’t need to preheat the oven yet, because the macarons will need to sit for a while to form a skin before they can be baked.

Next up, you need to weigh out your egg whites. As I said, I know it seems a bit extra to have to weigh out such specific measurements of egg white, but macarons require extra attention! It’s super important that all of the ratios are spot on, to get the perfect bake. This recipe calls for 72g of egg whites, separated into two equal portions of 36g each- if you measure the white out as you separate the egg, using a bowl set on a digital scale, you can measure it exactly.

Transfer one of the 36g portions of egg white into the metal bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with a whisk attachment. A metal bowl will help your whites whip up fully, but it will also conduct heat, unlike a glass or ceramic bowl. Because you’ll be using the temperature of the bowl to identify when the meringue is ready, a metal bowl is preferable. Leave the egg white in the bowl while you get on with the other ingredients.

Place the ground almonds, icing sugar and cocoa powder into the bowl of a food processor. Pulse 10 times and sift into a large bowl, discarding any big pieces of almond that do not easily pass through the sieve. Repeat the whole process once more, to get the dry ingredients super fine. This will a) make sure your macarons bake up properly and b) make the tops of your macarons super smooth. Just don’t blitz the ingredients anymore than this, or the almonds will start to release their oils, which will ruin your macarons.

Add the remaining 36g portion of egg white to the sifted dry ingredients and mix, using a strong utensil, into a paste. It will be quite stiff- this is how it is supposed to be! Set this aside while you make the sugar syrup.

Place the sugar and water into a small saucepan (preferably with a spout, for easy pouring later) over medium heat. Allow to melt, swirling occasionally if needed, until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to the boil, and allow it to bubble until it reaches 118°C.

Meanwhile, when the sugar syrup has reached 112-114°C, start whipping the egg whites in the stand mixer bowl on high speed. This will give them enough time to whip up into soft peaks before the sugar syrup is ready- exactly what you are looking for.

When the sugar syrup has reached 118°C and the egg whites have reached soft peaks, you can add the syrup to the mixer. With the mixer still on high, pour the syrup down the side of the bowl in a slow, steady stream, until you have added the whole lot. Then, turn the mixer up to full speed and whip the meringue for about 5 minutes, until stiff peaks are achieved and the bowl has come down to room temperature.

When the meringue is ready, it’s time to add it to the chocolate and almond paste. Start by adding about a third of the meringue to the paste and mixing it in vigorously, until it is completely incorporated. At this stage, you’re just trying to loosen up the mixture.

Once the first lot of meringue has been incorporated, you can add the rest of the meringue. Use a rubber spatula to fold the mixture together using a figure of eight motion, until it is cohesive and there are no visible streaks. Keep folding until the batter falls off the spatula in ribbons, which settle back into the rest of the batter when left for 30 seconds. This process is called ‘macaronage’ and is notoriously finicky, but you’ll get used to it!

When the batter is ready, transfer it to a piping bag, fitted with a medium round nozzle. Holding the piping bag vertically to the tray, pipe a macaron onto the lined baking trays by applying gentle pressure in one spot, until the macaron is about 4cm in diameter. Repeat this process for the rest of the batter.

Once the macarons are all piped, tap the trays firmly on the work surface a few times to bring any air bubbles to the surface. Then, using a cocktail stick, skewer or sharp knife, pop the bubbles, allowing the macaron batter to fall back on itself as you do, giving you perfectly smooth shells. 

Leave the macarons to rest at room temperature for about 30-40 minutes, until they form a skin. That skin is what ultimately leads to the macarons developing their iconic ‘feet’. Macarons will form a skin more quickly on hot, dry days, but will take much longer on humid, rainy or cold days. If you can, it’s best to make macarons on dry days, but, obviously, that isn’t always possible. I have had success making macarons from this recipe on rainy days, but they did take a lot longer to form a skin. You’ll know the macarons are ready to bake when you can lightly touch the surfaces without any batter sticking to your finger. 

When the macarons are almost ready, set the oven to 160°C (fan- I don’t usually use a fan oven, but I do for these. Like I said, macarons are finicky). When the macarons are ready and the oven is up to temperature, bake one tray at time for 11 minutes. When they are ready, you should be able to gently wiggle the top of a macaron shell with your finger and it shouldn’t wobble.

Using a fan oven usually means you can bake more than one tray at a time. Alas, macarons are high-maintenance and, any time I have tried to do this, the lower tray always seems to bake unevenly, erupt into tiny almond-y volcanoes or crack along the top. Save yourself the inevitable distress and allow for an extra 11 minutes to bake that second tray. 

Once the macarons have baked, allow them to cool on the trays completely before filling.

How to Decorate the Macarons

Pair up the cooled macaron shells- try to put shells of a similar size together for a more even look.

Melt the white chocolate and transfer it to a piping bag, fitted with a fine round nozzle. Pipe the outline of some icing onto one of the macaron shells.

Add a little more chocolate within the outline, then use a cocktail stick/small sharp knife to ‘wiggle’ the chocolate around and smooth it out.

You can also gently tap the macaron on a surface to even out the layer.

Add a few holly sprinkles to the top of the white chocolate before it sets. It might be helpful to use a pair of tweezers to pick up the small sprinkles!

Repeat this process for half of the macaron shells (these will be the tops of each filled macaron), then allow them to set for about an hour before filling.

How to Assemble the Macarons

To assemble the macarons, place some chilled dark chocolate ganache onto the bottom shell of each macaron pair. You can use a piping bag, fitted with a medium/large piping tip for a polished look, or simply spoon/spread some ganache on freehand! Carefully press the top macaron shell (with the Christmas pudding decoration) on top, and the macarons are ready to serve!

Macaron-Making 101: Tips and Tricks for Perfect Macarons

In my last macaron post, I provided a full list of tips and tricks for making perfect macarons. It was… extensive, and I don’t want you to feel overwhelmed by it, so I’ve cut it down for this post. I’ve only included the things that aren’t otherwise referred to in the method sections above. If you would like to see the full list, check out the other post!

• Make sure both your bowl and the whisk attachment for your mixer are completely clean. Any traces of fat/residue will prevent your egg whites from whipping up. Wipe out both the whisk attachment and the bowl with a little white wine vinegar to ensure there are no traces of grease.
• Use a digital scale. Macarons require very specific measurements of ingredients- mechanical scales are not accurate enough for this purpose.
• Use an accurate (digital) sugar thermometer. You need to bring the sugar syrup up to 118°C, which is a very specific (but very necessary!) value- having to eyeball this will make your job so much harder and the success of your macarons so much less certain. 
• Use a macaron template. Making identical macaron shells is one of the biggest challenges of making macarons at home- using a template as a guide can make the process much easier. To make a template, take a sheet of A3 paper, and draw circles at intervals across the whole sheet- I like my macarons to be about 4cm in diameter, but you can make your macarons any size (just be aware that making smaller/larger shells will affect the number of macarons this recipe makes/the cooking time). Place this template under the baking paper on your baking tray and pipe into the circle guides. Remember to carefully slide out the template before baking, then store it away for when you next make macarons!

How to Store Macarons

Filled macarons are best kept in an airtight container and stored in the fridge, where they will keep for about 5 days, but they can be stored at room temperature for 2-3 days, if needed.

Unfilled macaron shells can be kept in an airtight container for about 5 days, but will start becoming more brittle and less chewy if left for too long.

Recipe

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Christmas Pudding Macarons

Chocolate Italian macarons, filled with dark chocolate ganache and decorated to look like little Christmas puddings 🎄

Course Dessert, Snack

Keyword Chocolate, chocolate ganache, Chocolate macaron, Christmas pudding, Italian macarons, macaron

Prep Time 2 hours hours

Cook Time 11 minutes minutes

Setting time 12 hours hours

Servings 15 macarons

Ingredients

For the dark chocolate ganache:

• 120 g dark chocolate
• 180 ml double cream

For the chocolate macarons:

• 85 g ground almonds
• 80 g icing sugar
• 23 g cocoa powder
• 72 g egg whites, split into 2x36g portions.
• 105 g caster sugar
• 30 ml water

To decorate:

• 80 g white chocolate
• Holly sprinkles (see Note 1).

Instructions

Make the dark chocolate ganache:

• Finely chop the chocolate and put it into a small, heatproof bowl.
• Place the cream into a small saucepan over medium heat. Stirring frequently, allow it to come to just below a simmer (you will see small bubbles start to form around the edge of the pan), before pouring it over the chopped chocolate.
• Allow to stand for 1-2 minutes, then stir until the chocolate has completely melted and you have a smooth mixture. Cover the surface directly with clingfilm (to prevent the ganache from forming a skin), then allow to cool slightly before putting into the fridge to set overnight.

Make the chocolate macarons:

• Line 2 baking trays with baking paper. Fit a piping bag with a medium-sized, round nozzle and set aside.
• Place the ground almonds, icing sugar and cocoa powder into a food processor. Pulse 10 times, then sift into a large bowl, discarding any large lumps. Repeat this process once more, so that you are left with a very fine powder.
• Add one of the 36g portions of egg white to the dry ingredients. Mix well to form a paste, then set aside.
• Place the remaining 36g of egg white into the clean, metal bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment. Set aside while you make the sugar syrup.
• Place the caster sugar into a small saucepan with the 30ml of water. Place over a medium heat and bring to a boil. Do not stir- swirl gently if necessary. Allow the syrup to continue bubbling, monitoring the temperature with a digital sugar thermometer.
• When the syrup has reached 114°C, turn the stand mixer to high speed and begin to whip the egg whites to soft peaks. Keep the syrup over the heat.
• When the sugar syrup has reached 118°C and the egg whites have reached soft peaks, with the mixer still on high, pour the syrup down the side of the bowl in a slow, steady stream. Once all of the syrup has been added, turn the mixer up to full speed and beat for 5 minutes, or until stiff peaks are achieved and the metal bowl has come to room temperature.
• When the meringue is ready, add 1/3 of it to the cocoa and almond mixture. Mix vigorously to combine the two mixtures and loosen the thick paste.
• Add the rest of the meringue and fold it in, using a figure of eight motion, until the mixture is cohesive and comes off the spatula in ribbons- if you leave those ribbons for 30 seconds, they should level themselves out into the rest of the mixture.
• Transfer the macaron batter to the prepared piping bag. Holding the bag vertically to the baking tray, apply gentle pressure to pipe circular 'blobs' that are about 4cm in diameter.
• Once the macarons are piped, lift the whole tray and drop it down onto the work surface a few times to bring any air bubbles to the surface. Use a sharp knife/cocktail stick to burst any remaining bubbles, letting the mixture fall back on itself.
• Set the macarons aside at room temperature to form a skin- on a relatively dry day, this should take about 30-40 minutes, but can take less time on drier, warmer days and more time on cold, humid days. Check on the macarons every 10-15 minutes or so, if unsure. The macarons will be ready when you can gently touch their surfaces without any batter coming off on your finger.
• When the macarons are almost ready, preheat the oven to 165°C fan. Bake the macarons in the centre of the oven, one tray at a time, for 11 minutes. To check if they are done, place a finger on top of the shells and wiggle gently. When done, the tops of the macarons should not wobble. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely on the tray.

To decorate:

• Once the macarons shells are cool, melt the white chocolate and place it into a piping bag, fitted with a fine round nozzle. Pipe the outline of some icing onto one shell, then add some more chocolate within that outline and spread it out, using a sharp knife/cocktail stick, so that you have a thin, even coating of chocolate. Add a couple of holly sprinkles to the top edge, to decorate. Repeat this process for half of the macaron shells.

To assemble:

• Place the chilled ganache into a piping bag, fitted with a large round tip.
• Pipe a dollop of ganache onto the underside of each of the undecorated macarons. Place a decorated macaron shell on top of each one and gently press the two halves together. The macarons are best eaten immediately, but can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days, or at room temperature for 2-3 days. You can also keep the unfilled macaron shells in an airtight container, at room temperature for about 5 days, before filling.

Notes

1. I found these holly leaf & berry sprinkles at Waitrose, which made making these Christmas Pudding Macarons super easy. If you can’t find sprinkles, you could also use coloured icing/chocolate, or even tubes of red and green writing icing, to draw little leaves and berries. 

We have already established here on the blog that I am a big tennis fan. Being from the UK, I am also, inevitably, a big Wimbledon fan. With Finals Weekend kicking off today, I wanted to make a cake to celebrate (& snack on while I’m watching the matches!).

You may have noticed that this cake, which I am fondly dubbing my ‘Wimble-cake’, features carrots, rather than the iconic strawberries. Do not fret! I did not get my fruits & vegetables mixed up! The decoration for this cake is inspired by this photo:

The Carota Boys are the (very devoted) fan club of the Italian tennis player (my favourite!), Jannik Sinner. They have been going to tennis tournaments around the world, dressed as, well, carrots, to show their support (it’s a long, bizarre and very niche story). Anyway, they make me laugh and I love them. When they attended Wimbledon last week, they took this photo outside the Lavazza flagship store. Obviously, my immediate reaction to seeing the photo was: “I could cake that!”. So I did.

As always with my cakes, taste comes first. I put a lot of effort into making my cakes look nice, but I never want to make a cake that is all style over substance! My Wimble-cake, therefore, is a 4-layer, strawberries & cream cake, decorated with macaron tennis balls & marzipan carrots. Quick note though: if you did want a more traditional Wimble-cake, you could absolutely replace the marzipan carrots with marzipan strawberries for a more classic Wimble-vibe.

Let’s get into it, shall we?

Table of Contents

• Making the Macaron Tennis Balls
• Making the Marzipan Carrots
• Making the Vanilla Cake (All-In-One Method)
• Making the Strawberries & Cream Filling
• Assembling the Wimble-Cake
• Making the Whipped Cream Icing
• Decorating the Wimble-Cake
• Recipe

Making the Macaron Tennis Balls

These macaron tennis balls are just plain macarons, topped with coloured white chocolate & gold lustre dust, then filled with a milk chocolate ganache. For this cake, I made 6 standard-sized macarons (about 3.5cm diameter) and 1 large macaron (about 4.5cm diameter). To make these macarons, you will need the following ingredients:

• Ground almonds (macarons are almond cookies, so almonds are a must!).
• Icing sugar (one of the two types of sugar in Italian macarons).
• Egg white (for the amount of macarons you need to decorate this cake, you only need 2x15g portions of egg white. This works out to be just a little less than 1 egg’s worth of white in total. I find the easiest way to divide an egg white is to separate your egg slowly into a bowl that is set on a digital scale. When you hit 15g, switch in a new bowl and repeat the process. If you go a bit over, you can use a fork to take out a little white at a time, until you have the perfect amount!).
• Caster sugar (the second of the sugars! You need both, because they are used for different elements. The icing sugar is mixed into a paste with the almonds, while the caster sugar is combined with water and used to make a sugar syrup).
• White chocolate (you don’t need a lot of this, because we’re just adding a thin layer onto the top of each macaron, but I’d still recommend using a chocolate you like the taste of! We’ll be tempering this chocolate to ensure a snappy, shiny coating on each macaron).
• Purple and green food colouring (because we’ll be using these colourings to tint chocolate, you need to use an oil-based colouring. With other colourings, you won’t get an even colour and the consistency of your chocolate may be affected (it might even seize, if you use a liquid colouring!). I used the Colour Mill colourings and they worked perfectly. They achieved the most even colour I have ever managed with tinting chocolate!).
• Gold lustre dust (I used this lustre dust, from Sugarflair. When mixed with alcohol, lustre dust turns into a watercolour-esque ‘paint’, which can be applied directly onto baked goods).
• Vanilla extract (you need some sort of alcohol to mix with the lustre dust. While you can get special alcohol mixing solutions from specialist cake decorating stores, you can also use the much more readily available vanilla extract, which is made by macerating vanilla pods in, you guessed it, alcohol! Don’t bother using a super good quality extract though- it would be a bit of a waste, seeing as you don’t taste it and vanilla extract can get expensive!).
• Milk chocolate (we’ll be using the chocolate to make a ganache to fill the macarons with. If you prefer a dark/white chocolate ganache, go ahead and switch this milk chocolate out! You could also fill the macarons with cream, buttercream, jam, whatever takes your fancy.).
• Double cream (the other key ingredient for ganache- if you’re in the US, use heavy cream instead).

You will also need the following specialist equipment:

• 4x piping bags (you’ll need 1 piping bag for making the macaron shells, 1 for each colour of the white chocolate decoration and 1 for the chocolate ganache filling).
• 2x round piping tips (1x very fine, 1x medium) (you’ll use the medium tip for making the shells and filling the macarons, and the fine tip for decorating the shells with the chocolate. If you have multiple tips, you won’t have to do quite so much washing up as you go, but it’s not a requirement. If you do wash the fine tip between the chocolate colours, though, use warm water (cold water will set the chocolate!) and a reusable straw/piping tip cleaner brush, and make sure the tip is completely dry before you use it again- remember: chocolate hates water- it makes it seize!)
• Fine, food-safe paintbrush (we’ll use this to add the gold lustre dust paint onto the macaron shells. The finer the brush, the more control you’ll have over the placement of the gold line).

I already have a post here on the blog that details how to make perfect macarons, every time. You can find that here. For this post, we’ll focus on how to decorate those macarons to make them into these cute tennis balls. For this cake, I used a 1/2 batch of my macaron recipe, to make a total of 6 standard macarons and 1 larger macaron (12x standard halves and 2x larger halves). Bake up your macarons, as per the instructions in my previous post, and allow them to cool completely before proceeding. Then, you’re ready to decorate!

Melt, temper & colour half of the white chocolate purple: I have an in-depth tutorial for how I temper chocolate here on the blog. You can find that post here. When I’m colouring the chocolate as well, I like to add the oil-based colouring during the cooling stage. That way, there’s plenty of stirring ahead, during which that colour can get really well incorporated. Start with half of the chocolate and one of the two colours (I used purple first, but either is fine!), decorate with it, then we’ll come back and repeat the process for the other colour. That way, your chocolate won’t set before you get a chance to use it!

Put the purple chocolate into a piping bag, fitted with a fine round tip: You need to ensure that there are no unmelted bits of chocolate before you put it into the piping tip! Using a super fine tip will give you increased control and allow you to create more intricate shapes, but it also means that any tiny unmelted piece of chocolate will block the tip- not what you want at all. Make sure your chocolate’s smooth and you’ll have a much less stressful piping experience.

Pipe the purple chocolate onto the domed surface of each macaron shell: Pipe the outline of a curved teardrop shape (think half of the yin & yang symbol) on top of the macaron. Add a little more chocolate inside that outline (I like to zig zag from side to side a couple of times). Then, using the point of a small, sharp knife, or a cocktail/skewer, push the chocolate to meet the outline, so that you are left with a very thin, smooth & even layer of chocolate, covering half of the macaron. Repeat for all of your macaron halves, then set aside while you deal with the green chocolate.

Repeat the process for the green chocolate: Melt, temper & colour the remaining half of the white chocolate green. Put it into another piping bag fitted with the fine, round tip, then pipe it onto the macarons. Follow the curve of the centre line, making sure the green chocolate touches the purple chocolate, the finish off the circle around the edge. Fill in this outline as before. You should now have a full circle of thin chocolate on top of each macaron shell, half purple, half green. Allow these to set at room temperature until hard.

Mix up your lustre dust ‘paint’: Add a generous amount of gold lustre dust to a small bowl. Add the vanilla extract, a few drops at a time, and mix until you achieve a smooth, fluid consistency. Use a fine paintbrush to paint the gold colour directly into the seam between the two colours, following the curve, right across the middle of each ‘tennis ball’. Let this dry before sandwiching your macarons.

After that you just need to fill and sandwich your macarons! I have the best results when I make the ganache the day before and allow it to firm up in the fridge overnight. You can spread it on your macarons with a knife or spoon, but I like to pipe it. If you are piping it, use a medium round nozzle. It will be a little tricky to pipe at first (because it will be quite firm), but you can use scissors to ‘snip off’ the ganache (a bit like a churro!) if you’re struggling to finish it off. The ganache will warm up super quickly under the heat of your hands though, so try to pipe your macarons quickly, otherwise things will get messy!

Once your macarons are sandwiched, keep them in the fridge until you’re ready to decorate the cake.

Making the Marzipan Carrots

As marzipan vegetables go, carrots are one of the most straightforward- they are essentially just a slightly tapered log! To make your own marzipan carrots, you’ll need the following ingredients:

• Marzipan (I used store-bought, but you can make your own. Using a white marzipan will give you more control over the final colour, but, because you’ll be dying it orange, you can absolutely get away with a golden marzipan).
• Orange food colouring (I used Colour Mill, in the shade Orange).
• Mint leaves (ideally, you want to pick off the very top of the stems, so that you have several smaller leaves, connected by a single stem: aim to keep the stem about 1-2cm long, so you can poke it into the marzipan more easily).
• Icing sugar, for dusting

You’ll also need the following equipment:

• Baking paper (this will protect your countertop from the food colouring, which can (and will) stain).
• Food-safe disposable gloves (this will protect your hands from the food colouring- trust me, you don’t want to skip them!).
• A dinner knife (you’ll be using the flat edge to make indents horizontally along the carrots).
• A chopstick, or other similar item (this is to make the round indent on the top of each carrot- use whatever you have around that is about the right size! I used the end of the paintbrush that I used for the gold lustre dust).
• A cocktail stick (this will be helpful when you are inserting the mint leaves into your carrots).

When you have everything assembled, you can start making your carrots!

Prep your area and ingredients: You want to start out by spreading a piece of baking paper out on your worksurface. Dust it with icing sugar, then break off enough marzipan for all of your carrots (I made mine about 12g each and made 6 carrots in total, but you can make your carrots smaller/bigger, if you prefer).

Colour your marzipan: Put your gloves on and knead the marzipan, until you have a smooth ball. Make a dent in the centre of the ball and add several drops of food colouring into it. Keep kneading the marzipan, working the colour in as you go, until you have an even colour throughout.

Divide your marzipan into equal portions: Cut your marzipan into 6 equal portions (if you want to make more/fewer carrots, you’ll need more/fewer portions!). Roll each portion into a ball.

Form the carrot shape: Roll each ball into a log. Apply more pressure to one end as you roll, to taper it slightly.

Add some detail: Use the flat side of a dinner knife to make horizontal indents all the way up the carrots, rolling the carrot as you go, so that the marks go around the carrot. Use a chopstick (or similar utensil) to make a round indent in the top of the carrot.

Add the carrot tops: Poke a little sprig of mint into the indent on top of each carrot. This is easier to do while the marzipan is still soft, but the mint will wilt if left too long. I recommend allowing your carrots to harden up for at least a few hours (this will prevent the orange colour from coming off on your hands!), then using a cocktail stick to make an incision in the top indent, which you can then push your mint sprig into.

And there you have it! Marzipan carrots, all ready to go. As I said earlier, if you want a more traditional Wimble-cake, you can absolutely make marzipan strawberries, instead of carrot (though you will need red food colouring, instead of orange!) I would suggest adding sesame seeds (to mimic the strawberry seeds) and keeping the mint leaves on top.

Making the Vanilla Cake (All-In-One Method)

For this cake, I kept things super simple with a plain, vanilla cake. Growing up, my mum always swore by Mary Berry’s All-In-One method for making sponge, and, now that I am older, I can totally see the appeal. It’s quick, easy, and incredibly low-fuss. With this method, I can get a cake in the oven in less than 10 minutes! It’s perfect for when you just want delicious cake, now, but it’s also great for recipes like this, where the decorations take a little while to create and you don’t want to use up too much energy making the cake! For the sponge, you will need:

• Stork (if you’ve read my cake recipes before, you’ll know that I prefer to use Stork baking margarine for a moister, fluffier cake. If you don’t want to use Stork, you can substitute it for the same quantity of softened unsalted butter).
• Eggs (I always use large eggs in my baking).
• Self-raising flour (self-raising flour helps these cakes to rise. If you don’t have any, you can substitute plain flour. You’ll need to add an extra 1 1/2 tsp of baking powder though, to substitute the leavening agent included in self-raising flour).
• Caster sugar (I like to use golden caster sugar, because I like the flavour, but you can use white if you prefer).
• Baking powder (this will help your cake to rise. This is a particularly key ingredient when you’re using the all-in-one method, because there is no creaming stage to incorporate extra air).
• Milk (ideally, you want to use full fat milk for this recipe. However, I usually only have skimmed milk on hand, so I always use that- it works out fine!).
• Vanilla extract (use a good quality vanilla extract- it’s the only flavouring in the cake!).

The method seems like it shouldn’t work, but it really does! You literally put all of the ingredients for the sponge in the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with a whisk attachment. You mix on medium-low speed to incorporate the flour (no flour-clouds here, please!), then turn up the speed to high and whisk until you have a smooth, airy batter- about 1 minute. I took some progress photos to show you what you’re aiming for:

After mixing on medium-low speed for about 30-40 seconds, you’ll end up with something a bit like this: the beginning of a batter, with quite a few lumps of butter remaining. Honestly, it doesn’t look particularly appetising at this point, but don’t worry- it’ll be perfect in the end!

Once all the flour has been incorporated, you can turn the speed up to high. This intense beating will break down all those lumps of butter, leaving you with a smooth, but not overly fluffy, batter.

At this point, you’ll want to continue whisking the batter until its smooth, fluffy and holds its shape slightly better. It won’t take long- probably less than 30 more seconds at high speed. And that’s it! Your batter is done. How easy is that?

Here, you can see the difference in colour between the three stages. When the flour has just been incorporated, the mixture is a deep yellow colour (bottom). After a bit more whisking, it lightens up slightly (top). When it’s ready, it’s pale and super fluffy (right)!

Once you have your batter, you need to divide it equally between 2x 6-inch cake tins (don’t forget to grease and line them beforehand!). Bake them at 170°C for about 30 minutes, or until they spring back when touched gently. Allow the cakes to cool for 5-10 minutes in their tins, before carefully taking them out and transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Making the Strawberries & Cream Filling

I sandwiched the cake layers with a super easy strawberries & cream filling. It’s only 3 ingredients, but it’s incredibly delicious and very Wimbledon-esque. You’ll need:

• Strawberries (try to find really good strawberries, so they’ll have a stronger, sweeter flavour!).
• Double Cream (again, if you’re in the US, you’ll want to use heavy cream).
• Icing sugar (this helps to stabilise the cream slightly, so it will hold up under the cake layers).

That’s it! All you need to do is hull and chop the strawberries into a small dice. This will ensure every bite of cake gets a piece of strawberry, without it affecting the structure of the layered-up cake.

You then want to sift the icing sugar into the cream, and whip it with an electric mixer until it is just below stiff peaks. Once cream gets stiff, it will keep thickening up, even as you spread it- so you don’t want to overwhip it at this stage. However, it needs to be firm enough that the layers do not slip and slide- it’s a fine line! I found that whipping it to just below stiff peaks was the perfect amount.

Assembling the Wimble-Cake

Because whipped cream, even with the added icing sugar, is significantly less stable than icing, you’ll want to split & layer up your cake with the strawberries & cream filling, then put it into the fridge to firm up for about 20-30 minutes. This will make decorating the finished cake much easier!

This is a 4-layer cake: to make these, I like to make 2x 6-inch cake layers and split them each horizontally, leaving me with 4, thin layers. This is perfect for this cake, because it means the cake:whipped cream ratio is more even! It also means more chance for strawberries, so, really, it’s a win/win. I use a cake leveller to do this, but you can use a large, serrated knife if you prefer. Place one of the cooled cakes on a chopping board, then place your palm on top of the cake and cut straight across the middle- taking care to be gentle! When you reach the opposite side of the cake, be super careful- the cake has a tendency to crumble at this point. If you’re using a cake leveller (these are usually not sharp, but are just a taut wire), go even more slowly and place your hand against the side of the cake, so the leveller meets it (this won’t hurt- you’ll be going too slowly! If your cake leveller has a sharp blade, obviously do not do this). If you’re using a knife, it’s safer to remove the knife and start cutting again from the opposite side.

Once you’ve levelled your cakes, you can start layering up! I like to smear a little whipped cream onto the cake board, so that my cake does not slide off. Then, place a layer onto the board. Top it with 1/3 of the strawberries & cream filling and spread that out into an even layer, right across the surface of the cake, then top that with another cake. Repeat this process twice more, until all of the filling is used up- your final layer should be the 4th layer of cake. Run a palette knife around the sides of the cake, to smooth out any icing that might have smushed out, then pop the whole cake into the fridge to chill for 20-30 minutes, before decorating.

Making the Whipped Cream Icing

The whipped cream icing is exactly the same as the filling, minus the strawberries (though you could absolutely use the filling to decorate the sides if you want- just remember you’ll need a lot more of it and your finished cake will have chunks of strawberry visible on it!). I opted to use just plain whipped cream, so I only needed two ingredients:

• Double cream (as before, if you’re in the US you’ll want to use heavy cream).
• Icing sugar (to stabilise the cream slightly).

Much like the filling, all you need to do is sift the icing sugar into the cream, then whip it until you reach just below stiff peaks. Because this icing won’t play any structural role in the cake, it’s just decorative, you can afford to whip it slightly less than the filling- it just needs to be stiff enough to not run off the cake when you ice the sides!

Decorating the Wimble-Cake

By this point, you’ve done all the difficult parts! All that’s left to do is ice the cake with your freshly whipped cream, then you can pile up the tennis ball macarons and marzipan carrots in an organised-yet-chaotic pile. The amount of cream specified in the recipe is enough to generously cover the top and sides of this 4-layer 6-inch cake, so keep that in mind if you’re making a bigger/smaller version.

A few tips for covering a cake with whipped cream icing:

• Embrace the messy look: There’s a trend at the moment for super smooth, perfect cakes. It’s beautiful, but you don’t need to do that to get an attractive cake at home (in fact, I am yet to succeed at it!). If you embrace the messy look, you can get a pretty cake that looks intentional!
• Place your cake on a turntable: This will make it so much easier to ice the cake, because you can turn it as you go! I recommend placing a non-slip mat underneath the cake though- you don’t want it to slide off mid spin!
• Tuck small pieces of baking paper under the cake to protect the board: Icing the sides of a cake can get messy! I find that the best way to prevent icing from falling onto the cake board is to cut small pieces of baking paper and tuck them between the cake and the board. When you’ve finished icing, you can gently pull out the paper (with any icing that has dropped onto it!). I like to run the flat edge of a knife around the bottom of the cake afterwards, just to neaten up the seam between the cake and the board.

Once you’ve covered the cake, you can decorate it with the tennis ball macarons and marzipan carrots! Place the largest macaron at the front, leaning against the cake, then stack up the others, so that you have a cascading pile of tennis balls. If you have any leftover whipped cream, you can use it to help stick the macarons to the cake/board.

Once you have your tennis ball avalanche, you can add the carrots. Press them into the cake, place them onto the cake board and balance them on the macarons in a variety of positions. Marzipan gets sticky when it touches water, so you can use that knowledge (sparingly!) to help them stick, if necessary. And there you have it! Your Wimble-cake is complete!

One quick note here: The cake absolutely has to be kept in the fridge (it is covered in cream, after all). If you’re preparing it in advance, I would stick the macarons on after you ice it, then put it into the fridge without the carrots. You’ll want to balance/stick the carrots on just before you serve it, because the moisture in the fridge will make them sticky and cause the orange colour to bleed. Not the vibe.

Anyway, that’s it (she says after writing an essay on how to make a single Wimble-cake…)! Let me know what you think and if you’ve been watching Wimbledon this year! I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Gemma

xxx

Recipe

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Wimbledon Cake (Carota Boys’ Version)

A 4-layer, Wimbledon-themed, strawberries & cream cake, decorated with tennis ball macarons & marzipan carrots, inspired by the Carota Boys

Course Dessert, Snack

Keyword All-In-One method, Cream cheese, Italian macarons, macaron, marzipan, strawberries and cream, strawberry, vanilla cake, Wimbledon

Prep Time 4 hours hours

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

Chill time 12 hours hours 30 minutes minutes

Servings 12 people

Equipment

• candy thermometer
• 4 piping bags
• 1 fine round piping tip
• 1 medium round piping tip
• 1 fine, food-safe paintbrush
• cocktail sticks/skewers
• Food-safe disposable gloves
• Chopstick (or other small implement with a rounded point)

Ingredients

For the ganache:

• 50 g milk chocolate
• 50 g double cream

For the tennis ball macarons:

• 48 g ground almonds
• 52 g icing sugar
• 30 g egg whites (about 1 egg white, split into 2x15g portions)
• 48 g caster sugar
• 15 ml water
• 80 g white chocolate
• purple and green food colouring (see Note 1)
• gold lustre dust (see Note 2)
• vanilla extract (see Note 3)

For the marzipan carrots:

• 72 g marzipan
• orange food colouring
• 6 sprigs mint
• icing sugar for dusting

For the vanilla cake:

• 150 g Stork (see Note 4)
• 150 g self-raising flour
• 150 g caster sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp milk

For the strawberries & cream filling:

• 150 g strawberries
• 150 ml double cream
• 1 tbsp icing sugar

To decorate:

• 175 ml double cream
• 1 tbsp icing sugar

Instructions

For the ganache:

• Place the chocolate and cream into a microwave safe bowl. Microwave on low, in 30 second bursts, stirring well between each burst, until you have a smooth ganache. Cover with cling film, pressing it directly onto the surface of the ganache to prevent a skin forming, then chill in the fridge overnight before using.

For the macarons:

• Line a baking tray with baking paper. Fit a piping bag with a medium, round nozzle and set aside.
• Place the ground almonds and icing sugar into a food processor. Pulse 10 times, then sift into a large bowl, discarding any bits of almond that do not pass through the sieve. Add 1 of the 15g portions of egg white to the almonds/sugar and mix well to form a paste. Set aside.
• Place the other 15g portion of egg white into the clean, metal bowl of an electric stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment. Put the caster sugar and water into a small saucepan and place over medium heat. Use a candy thermometer to measure the temperature of the syrup.
• When the syrup reaches 112-114°C, start mixing the egg white in the bowl of the stand mixer on high speed. When the syrup reaches 118°C, remove it from the heat and pour it down the side of the bowl, into the egg white (which should be at soft peaks). When you have added all of the syrup to the bowl, turn the mixer up to full speed and whisk until the meringue reaches stiff peaks. When the meringue is ready, the outside of the bowl should only have a slight hint of warmth, when touched.
• Add 1/3 of the meringue to the almond paste and, using a metal spoon, mix it in thoroughly until well combined. Add the rest of the meringue and fold it in, using a figure of eight motion, until the mixture is cohesive and comes off the spatula in ribbons (if you leave those ribbons for 30 seconds, they should settle back into the mixture). Do not overmix at this stage.
• Place the macaron mixture into the piping bag. Hold the piping bag vertically and pipe your shells, leaving plenty of space between each one. You will need 12x 3.5cm diameter shells and 2x 4.5cm diameter shells.
• Once you have piped your macarons, lift the tray slightly and tap it down on the surface a couple of times, to raise any air bubbles to the surface. Use a small, sharp knife or cocktail stick to pop any remaining bubbles, allowing the mixture to fall back on itself. Set the macarons aside to form a skin- about 30-40 minutes on a dry day, longer if it is more humid. The macarons will be ready when you can gently touch the surface of the macarons, without any batter coming off on your finger.
• While the macarons are forming a skin, preheat the oven to 165°C fan. Bake the macarons for 11 minutes, or until you can gently wiggle your finger on top of the shells without them wobbling independently from their feet. Remove the macarons from the oven and let them cool completely on their tray before decorating.

For the tennis ball decoration:

• Melt, temper & colour half of the white chocolate purple. Place the chocolate into a piping bag, fitted with a fine, round tip. Pipe the outline of a curved, teardrop shape (a bit like half of the yin & yang symbol) onto half of each macaron shell. Pipe a little bit more chocolate within the outline, then use a small, sharp knife/cocktail stick to push that chocolate to the outlines, so that you have a smooth layer of purple chocolate on each shell. Leave at room temperature to set while you move on with the next batch of chocolate.
• Repeat the process, colouring the second batch of chocolate green, instead of purple. Pipe the green chocolate up against the set purple chocolate, so there is no gap between the two colours, then finish off the circle and fill it in in the same way. Allow this to set at room temperature, as well.
• When the chocolate has set completely, mix some gold lustre dust with a few drops of vanilla extract in a small bowl, until you have a smooth, fluid 'paint'. Use a fine, food-safe paintbrush to paint the gold colour into the seam between the green/purple chocolate halves. You can do a couple of layers of this, waiting for each layer to dry in between, to get a more opaque colour. Allow this to dry completely before sandwiching the macarons.
• To fill the macarons, place the chilled ganache into a piping bag, fitted with a medium round tip. Pipe a small amount of ganache onto half of the shells, then gently press an unfilled shell on top of each filled shell. Place the macarons into the fridge to chill while you make the rest of the cake.

For the marzipan carrots:

• Cover your work surface with a piece of baking paper. Wear disposable gloves to protect your hands. Knead the marzipan until it forms a smooth ball, then use your thumb to make an indent in it. Add a generous amount of orange food colouring to the indent.
• Knead the colour into the marzipan until it is even. Split the orange marzipan into 6 equal portions (each about 12g) and roll each into a ball. Form one ball into a log shape, applying more pressure to one end to taper it slightly. Use the blunt edge of a knife to press horizontal indents around the carrot, and a chopstick (or similar implement) to press a round indent in the top (the wider end) of it. Repeat for all of the portions of marzipan to make 6 carrots. Poke a sprig of mint into the top indent of each carrot, to act as the leaves. Set the carrots on a piece of baking paper to dry out at room temperature.

For the cake:

• Preheat the oven to 170°C (conventional oven). Grease and line 2x 6-inch cake tins and set aside.
• Place all of the cake ingredients into the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with a whisk attachment. Whisk on low speed to incorporate the flour, then increase the speed to high and whip until the batter is smooth, fluffy and pale- about 1 minute total. Use a spatula to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl.
• Split the batter evenly between the two cake tins. Spread out the batter so that it is even, then bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until the cakes spring back when touched gently. Allow the cakes to cool for 10 minutes, then carefully remove them from their tins and place onto a wire rack to cool completely.
• When the cakes are cool, split each cake in half horizontally, so that you have 4 thin layers of cake.

For the strawberries & cream filling:

• Wash and dry the strawberries, then hull them and chop them into a small dice.
• Place the cream and the icing sugar into a bowl, then whip to just below stiff peaks. Use a spatula to fold the strawberries into the cream.

To assemble the cake:

• Place one of the cake layers onto a cake board/plate. Add 1/3 of the strawberries & cream filling on top, then spread it out into an even layer, before topping with another layer of cake. Repeat the process twice more, until you have used up the filling and cake layers, finishing with the final cake layer. Place the layered cake into the fridge to firm up for 20-30 minutes.

For the whipped cream icing:

• Place the cream and icing sugar into a bowl. Whisk until it reaches just below stiff peaks.

To decorate the cake:

• Remove the chilled cake from the fridge. Spread the plain whipped cream icing generously over the top and sides of the cake.
• Stick the largest macaron to the front of the cake, so that it is resting on the cake board/plate. Use the 6 standard macarons to create a 'cascade' down the side of the cake- prop them against each other and use any remaining whipped cream to help stick them down.
• Add the marzipan carrots to the cake- prop them against the macarons, stick them to the side of the cake and place them on the board, to finish off your Wimble-cake. The finished cake will need to be stored in the fridge, where it will keep for 2-3 days. Note that the marzipan carrots will absorb moisture from the fridge and start to bleed their colour/become sticky. If you want to make this cake in advance, I recommend adding the carrots just before you are about to serve it.

Notes

1. You need to use an oil-based food colouring to colour chocolate. I used the shades Purple and Green from Colour Mill. 
2. I purchased this gold lustre dust, from Sugarflair, but any edible lustre dust will work. 
3. While you need to use a good quality vanilla extract for the cake, the flavour is barely noticeable when you use it for the lustre dust painting. Therefore, don’t waste a good quality, expensive vanilla extract on this stage- use a cheaper version if you have it. 
4. As always with my cakes, I prefer to use Stork for a fluffier, lighter cake. If you do not want to use Stork, you can substitute the same amount of softened, unsalted butter.

Let’s start by talking about what macarons are, because there is often a lot of confusion on the topic! This post is all about macarons, not macaroons. The extra ‘o’ makes a big difference- a macaron is an almond sandwich cookie, that is, 2 macaron ‘shells’ sandwiched together with some sort of filling (ganache, buttercream, cream etc.), while a macaroon is a single cookie flavoured with coconut. Macarons have smooth tops and little raised ‘feet’, while macaroons are much more uneven in texture because of the added coconut and don’t have feet at all.

Just to further complicate matters, there are multiple different types of macaron. The most common are French macarons and Italian macarons. I swear by Italian macarons- they require a few more steps, but I find that I am able to achieve successful shells much more easily (in fact, I am yet to make a successful batch of French macarons…). There are 2 main differences to the two types. Firstly, French macarons are made with French meringue, that is, dry sugar is added to egg whites and whipped to stiff peaks, while Italian macarons are made, shockingly enough, with Italian meringue, which uses a sugar syrup instead of dry sugar. Secondly, with French macarons, the almonds and icing sugar are added dry to the meringue, while, with Italian macarons, the almonds and icing sugar are mixed with half of the egg white to form a paste, which I think makes it easier to incorporate the almonds and sugar smoothly into the meringue. That’s about it! As I said, I am yet to have any success making French macarons (and, believe me, that is not for lack of trying), so this recipe is for Italian macarons.

Right, now that we’ve got the basics covered, we can look at how to achieve perfect macarons at home, every time. I learnt how to make macarons from this video, from the Cupcake Jemma YouTube channel (which is also, incidentally, why this recipe uses a fan oven- this is standard for all of the recipes on that channel). It’s a really helpful video, so definitely check it out if you’re new to macaron-making. I have scaled the original recipe down because I found the full-sized batch a little overwhelming- it was much more difficult for me to produce successful macarons when I made the full amount in one go. Using the half-batch that I give the measurements for here, I have more control over my macaronage and all of the batter fits into a standard piping bag, so I don’t have to refill part way through the piping process. The amounts given in this post will give 14-16 macarons, each about 4cm in diameter.

Tips and Tricks for Perfect Macarons:

• Use a stand mixer with a metal bowl to whip the egg whites. A metal bowl will help your whites whip up to their full potential, but it will also conduct heat, unlike a glass or ceramic bowl. Because you’ll be using the temperature of the bowl to identify when the meringue is ready, a metal bowl is preferable.
• Make sure both your bowl and the whisk attachment for your mixer are completely clean. Any traces of fat/residue will prevent your egg whites from whipping up. Wipe out both the whisk attachment and the bowl with some white wine vinegar to ensure there are no traces of grease.
• Use a digital scale. Macarons require very specific measurements of ingredients- mechanical scales are not accurate enough for them!
• Weigh your egg whites. All baking is sensitive to ratios, but macarons are especially so. This recipe calls for 72g of egg whites, separated into two equal portions of 36g each. I find that this is about 2 eggs’ worth- if you measure the white as you separate the egg, using a bowl set on a digital scale, you can measure it exactly. If you get a bit too much, I find it easiest to use a fork to remove a little white at a time.
• Sieve, blitz, sieve, blitz, sieve. I know this feels very extra- it is, but macarons are a very extra cookie. The finer you can get your dry ingredients (i.e. the ground almonds and icing sugar), the smoother the tops of your macaron shells and the more professional they will look! Large pieces of almond/icing sugar will also interfere with your macaronage process, which will affect the success of your shells. However, don’t be tempted to process the dry ingredients too much- the almonds will start to release their oils if processed for too long, which will ruin your macarons. I find 2 sets of 10 pulses is the perfect amount.
• Use a metal utensil to mix the dry ingredients with the egg white. This paste gets thick– a rubber spatula won’t have enough strength! The sharp edge of a metal spoon will also help you to ensure the mixture is fully combined.
• If you plan to colour your macarons, add more food colouring than you think you need. For the most even colour, it’s best to add the food colouring to the almond/sugar/egg white paste. Make this a much deeper colour than you are aiming for, because it will become severely lighter once you have incorporated the pale meringue mixture, and lighter still (on the exterior of the shells, at least) as the macarons bake in the oven.
• Use an accurate (digital) sugar thermometer. You need to bring the sugar syrup up to 118°C, which is a very specific (but very necessary!) value- having to eyeball this will make your job so much harder and the success of your macarons so much less certain.
• Start whipping the remaining egg whites when the sugar syrup reaches about 114°C. This will give the whites just enough time to foam up before the sugar syrup reaches the correct temperature.
• Pour the sugar syrup into the egg whites down the side of the bowl, with the mixer on. If you pour too close to the whisk, you’ll end up with spun sugar all around your bowl! Pour in a single, steady stream in one spot- you’ll lose a little sugar as it sets on the side of the bowl, but there will be much less wastage than with the alternative.
• Whip the meringue on full speed until the bowl is no longer hot. The best way to tell if your meringue is ready is to check its temperature. Touch the outside of the bowl after about 5 minutes of whisking- when it is ready, it should be room temperature (just don’t touch it for a minute or two after putting in the sugar syrup- it will be very hot!).
• Vigorously mix 1/3 of the meringue into the almond/sugar/egg mixture. Don’t worry at this stage about folding, just get it well combined. The point here is to loosen the mixture, ready for the macaronage stage.
• Be firm, but gentle, during the macaronage stage. Macaronage is the term given to the final mixing stage of the macaron-making process, and it is notoriously finicky. You’ll find people who tell you to do a certain number of mixes- I don’t love this method because everyone has a different technique/level of force! Fold the meringue in firmly (you can switch to a spatula at this stage, because the mixture will be much less thick), using a figure of eight motion, to ensure the mixture is cohesive, but be mindful of the air in the egg whites at the same time. When the mixture is ready, you should be able to draw a ribbon with your spatula. Leave the mixture to stand for 30 seconds, and that ribbon should have levelled itself out into the rest of the mixture.
• Use a medium round piping nozzle to pipe the macarons. Too small, or too big, and it will be difficult to get neat macarons.
• Use a macaron template. Making identical macaron shells is one of the biggest challenges of making macarons at home- using a template as a guide can make the process much easier. To make a template, take a sheet of A3 paper, and draw circles at intervals across the whole sheet- I like my macarons to be about 4cm in diameter, but you can change this, just be aware that making smaller/larger shells will affect the number of macarons this recipe makes. Place this template under the baking paper on your baking tray and pipe into the circle guides. You can then carefully slide out the template before baking and reuse it later on.
• Hold the piping back vertically when piping the macarons. Apply gentle pressure, then stop applying that pressure and make a small circular ‘flick’ to finish off the macaron (don’t worry if you get a little peak though, they will usually flatten out themselves during the next stages, but you can also flatten them with your finger, sparingly dipped in water, if need be).
• Tap the tray firmly on the work surface a few times after piping. Air bubbles are a macaron’s worst enemy. Tapping the tray on the work surface after piping will bring those bubbles to the surface. You can then use a cocktail stick, skewer or sharp knife to pop the bubbles, allowing the macaron batter to fall back on itself as you do, giving you perfectly smooth shells.
• Don’t skimp on the resting time. Macarons need to rest at room temperature for about 30-40 minutes to form a skin. That skin is what ultimately leads to the macarons developing their iconic ‘feet’. Macarons will form a skin more quickly on hot, dry days, but will take much longer on humid, rainy or cold days. If you can, it’s best to make macarons on warm, dry days, but, obviously, that isn’t always possible. I have had success making macarons from this recipe on rainy days, but they did take a lot longer to form a skin. You’ll know the macarons are ready to bake when you can lightly touch the surface without any batter sticking to your finger.
• Bake one tray of macarons at a time. This recipe calls for a fan oven, which usually means you can bake more than one tray of tasty treats at a time. Alas, macarons are high-maintenance and, any time I have tried to do this, the lower tray always seems to bake unevenly, erupt into tiny almond-y volcanoes or crack along the top. Save yourself the inevitable distress and allow for an extra 11 minutes to bake that second tray.
• If you have time, make the ganache filling the day before the macarons. While you can keep the macarons unfilled in an airtight container for about a week, they are best on the day you make them. The ganache, however, will be at the perfect consistency for filling after a night in the fridge (though, if you don’t mind a slightly messier macaron-eating experience, you can absolutely go ahead and use the ganache after a few hours). Make the ganache the day before, and you’ll get to experience the macarons at their very best as soon as the shells have cooled!

Now that you know all of my hard-earned tips and tricks for perfect Italian macarons, let’s talk a bit more about these special coronation macarons. As I said, the macaron shells themselves are super basic- no colouring, no flavouring- just plain macarons. The filling is also very basic, it’s just a milk chocolate ganache made using a 1:1 ratio of cream to chocolate (I know macarons can have many different fillings, but I just can’t bring myself to deviate from my beloved chocolate ganache…). What makes these macarons different is the decoration on the shells- and it’s pretty easy to do! It’s just melted white chocolate, coloured and drizzled onto half of the shells using a couple of piping bags fitted with very fine nozzles. You don’t even have to temper the chocolate- it’s such a small amount that it will set up at room temperature just fine. Just be sure to use an oil-based food colouring to colour it- a liquid one will make the chocolate seize. Before the chocolate drizzles set, I added a few gold sprinkles on top, just for an extra bit of fun. And that was it! Once the chocolate sets, you can sandwich one decorated shell with one undecorated shell, and you’ll be left with fun and fancy-looking macarons.

These coronation macarons were made for my brother’s friend Phoebe, who took them to her local street party and sent me this photo- doesn’t it look so pretty?

I hope you like the macarons! Let me know in the comments if you give them a try, but I’d also love to hear where you stand on the French v Italian macaron debate! Have you managed to succeed with French macarons?

Gemma

xxx

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Coronation Macarons

Italian macarons filled with milk chocolate ganache & decorated with coloured white chocolate drizzles and gold sprinkles

Course Dessert, Snack

Cuisine Italian

Keyword almond, Chocolate, chocolate ganache, Italian macarons, macaron

Prep Time 1 hour hour

Cook Time 11 minutes minutes

Setting Time 4 hours hours 40 minutes minutes

Total Time 2 hours hours 51 minutes minutes

Servings 16 macarons

Equipment

• 4 piping bags
• 1 medium round piping nozzle
• 2 very fine round piping nozzles
• 1 open star piping nozzle
• 2 baking trays
• Food processor
• Stand mixer (with metal bowl and whisk attachment)

Ingredients

For the chocolate ganache:

• 180 g milk chocolate
• 180 ml double cream

For the macaron shells:

• 95 g ground almonds
• 103 g icing sugar
• 72 g egg whites (divided into 2 separate bowls of 36g each)
• 95 g caster sugar

To decorate

• 40 g white chocolate
• oil-based food colouring (red and blue)
• gold sprinkles

Instructions

For the chocolate ganache:

• Place the chocolate and cream into a microwave safe bowl. Melt on low for 1 minute at a time, stirring in between each burst, until chocolate has melted completely and ganache is smooth. Cover with clingfilm and place into the fridge to firm up for at least a few hours, preferably overnight.

For the macaron shells:

• Line 2 baking trays with baking paper and place a template underneath baking paper, if using. Fit a piping bag with a medium round nozzle and set aside.
• Place the ground almonds and icing sugar into a food processor. Pulse 10 times, then sift into a large bowl, discarding any large lumps that do not go through the sieve. Repeat this process once more.
• Add one of the 36g portions of egg white to the almond/sugar mixture. Mix well to make a paste, then set aside.
• Place the remaining 36g of egg white into the clean metal bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment. Set aside.
• Place the caster sugar into a small saucepan with 30ml of water. Place over a medium heat and start to bring to a boil. Do not stir- swirl gently if necessary.
• When the sugar syrup has reached 114°C, turn stand mixer to high speed and begin to whip egg whites to soft peaks.
• When the sugar syrup has reached 118°C and the egg whites have reached soft peaks, with mixer still on high, pour the sugar syrup down the side of the bowl in a slow, steady stream. Once all of the syrup has been added, turn the mixer up to full speed and beat for 5 minutes, until stiff peaks are reached. Meringue will be ready when the bowl comes to room temperature.
• When the meringue is ready, add 1/3 of it to the almond paste. Mix vigorously to combine fully and loosen the thick paste.
• Add the rest of the meringue and fold, using a figure of eight motion, until mixture is cohesive and comes off the spatula in ribbons- if you leave those ribbons for 30 seconds, they should level themselves out into the rest of the mixture.
• Place the macaron mixture into the piping bag. Holding the bag vertical to the baking tray, pipe macarons about 4cm in diameter, leaving plenty of space between each one.
• Once macarons are piped, lift the whole tray up, and drop down on the work surface a few times to raise any air bubbles to the surface. Use a sharp knife/cocktail stick to burst any bubbles, letting the mixture fall back onto itself.
• Set the macarons aside at room temperature to form a skin- on a relatively dry day, this should take about 30-40 minutes, but can take less time on drier, warmer days and more time on cold, humid days. Check on the macarons every 10-15 minutes or so, if unsure. The macarons will be ready when you can gently touch the surface without any batter coming off on your finger.
• When the macarons are almost ready, preheat the oven to 165°C fan. Bake the macarons in the centre of the oven, one tray at a time, for 11 minutes. To check if they are done, place a finger on top of the shells and wiggle gently. When done, the tops of the macarons should not wobble. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely on the tray.

To decorate:

• Melt the white chocolate (I do this in the microwave- see Note 1). Separate into two bowls. Colour one bowl blue and the other bowl red (see Note 2).
• Fill 2 piping bags, fitted with very fine round piping nozzles, with the two shades of chocolate. Pipe drizzles of each colour onto half of the macaron shells. Add a few gold sprinkles to each, before the chocolate sets, if desired.
• Set the macarons aside at room temperature to set until completely solid, about 1 hour.

To assemble:

• Place the firm ganache into a piping bag, fitted with an open star tip.
• Pipe small rosettes into the centre of the flat side of each undecorated macaron half (do not go too close to the edge- when you 'sandwich' the macarons, the filling will be pressed out towards the edges). Place a decorated macaron half on top and gently press the two halves together. Macarons can be eaten immediately, or, once filled, kept in the fridge for a few days. You can also wait to fill the macarons- just keep the shells at room temperature in an airtight container and keep the ganache in the fridge (just be aware that the longer the ganache is in the fridge, the firmer it will become, making it more difficult to pipe/spread).

Notes

1. For such a small quantity of white chocolate, I melt it in the microwave on the lowest setting in 30 second bursts, stirring well between each. 
2. Adding a lot of food colouring may affect the consistency of your white chocolate, making it thick and ‘paste-like’. This happened with my red chocolate, which required a lot of colouring, but not my blue, which required less colouring to get the desired shade. Don’t worry- the chocolate will still set solid, it will just take longer to do so.