Monday, August 9, 2010

Two Tone MacCakes - Or what to do with yummy leftovers



MacCakes - no this isn't something you get at the golden arches. It's what I'm calling my cupcakes topped with macarons that were a result of some yummy leftovers this week.

Oh and check out the two tone topping.


Totally swirlalicious.

I've had it in my head to make some macCakes for a while and then I spied something very similar to these on one of Butter Hearts Sugar post. The pink two tone twirl on that site was so sweet.

So I was a bit inspired when I ended up with the following leftovers last week:
Chocolate butter cake cupcakes,
Vanilla Italian Meringue Buttercream,
Chocolate Buttercream
Strawberry and white chocolate macarons and
Vanilla Bean white chocolate macarons
.
My two tone macCakes were just meant to be.

and you know when your serving leftovers you have to jazz it up a bit so I added some gorgeous cupcake wrappers from The Cupcake Wrapper Co to pull the look together.


and just because I had some green cupcake wrappers as well I did these ones with the flowers as well.

Oh these made me so happy, I loved the chocolate buttercream with the macarons. I had even more macarons left and ended up piping a little star of the two tone buttercream on the top of all of them. No pictures of these as I ate them way too fast.


There are a couple of ways to do a two tone frosting, you can just pop the 2 different frostings into the one piping bag and hope for the best, or you can do what I did and pop each frosting into a separate bag, then pop those 2 bags into another bag with a tip. Usually ends up more even and with less smudging.


Ooops filled those bags a little too much, remember to under fill them a little as they will be getting squished in with another bag.

I piped onto the counter until I had the swirl coming through evenly and then it was easy peasy.


Yummmm!!!!!

Friday, August 6, 2010

Once upon a time....... Strawberry white chocolate pot recipe and Forest tea party


Once upon a time there were 4 gorgeous little girls, they were the prettiest and best dressed girls in the land and one day they happened upon a magical tea party in the forest.



There were cupcakes, strawberry mousse cups, rose and violet macarons, pink cake pops, sweets, lollipop cookies and finger sandwiches and a magical far away tree....


This isn't a fairy tale it's real life (well ok maybe the bit about the magical far away tree's not real) but it wasn't an accident these girls happened upon this tea party.


Strawberry Chocolate Pot recipe at bottom after jump

Elizabeth from LaToriana had a wonderful idea for a photo shoot set in the forest and was kind enough to invite my daughters and I along.

Daneve from Ah Tissue helped set the scene with hanging pom poms and Naomi V Photography took the amazing photo's.



and of course I made the food and styled the little tea table.

It was such fun, and so lovely to meet Elizabeth Murphy of LaToriana in person as I have been a fan and customer of her store for a number of years.


You can see from the photo's just how divine the clothes are I fell in love with the new Little Miss J range, LaToriana sources some of the best brands from Australian and New Zealand. See more pics at her Forest Tea Party La Toriana style blog post.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Breakfast at Tiffany's - Mac Tweets August Challenge



Macarons are just the perfect snack for a breakfast at Tiffany's..... light, easy to eat and you can stuff a bunch of them in one of those little blue bags.




Another bonus no flaking crumbs, or dusty icing sugar to spoil your little black Givenchy dress.



My macarons are supposed to look like a peal necklace falling out of the bags, and I'm not sure I quite captured that effect.

Oh well you get the picture.


They are plain white almond french macarons dusted with pearl luster dust filled with a vanilla bean and white chocolate ganache. Recipe is based on the Pierre Herme one I usually use, click here for the rose version.

Once again this is for the August Mac Tweets challenge which was movie themed.

Check out Mac Tweets later in the month for many more talented and creative macaron's.