Raspberry and Dark Chocolate macarons

This picture reminds me of the nursery rhyme build them up build them up build them higher, build it up, up, up into the sky. Think it's the clouds in the background.


A batch of macrons with Raspberry Dark Chocolate ganache filling, using the same recipe as the rose macarons, Click Here for recipe link.

Just omit sprinkling crystallised rose on the tops and fill with Dark Chocolate Raspberry ganache. I actually made it with raspberry chocolate oil instead of real raspberries to make the ganache a little more stable.

Recipe after jump

I heart macarons

 
Just a couple of pics of some macarons I popped a heart onto with some gel food colour.

They are actually just a tad undermixed as I was adding some food colour to the batch but wanted a couple of white ones as well, see  how they are a little bit too domed at the top, although they still have the feet/frill at the bottom and do taste perfectly lovely.

Oh macaron I do  ♥  you but you are so temperamental.
 
  

♥  ♥ ♥

Macaron mushrooms, cute coffee macaron and ganache treats

 
Mushroom macarons, now that you've seen them I bet your wondering why you didn't think of it first.

It's just so deliciously obvious isn't it. Well it was to me while I was making my mediocre mocha macarons a couple of weeks ago. It's like an obsession for me, I see something and immediately I think of at least 10 different things to cook that I write down in my little ideas book. If only I had the time to bake everyday I might be able to make a dint in all those ideas, but luckily for me and you I did get around to making these macaron mushrooms and they are amazing.

These mushrooms taste even better than they look, the base is a coffee ganache, creamy dark chocolate with a hint of coffee and the top is french almond macaron, a crisp outer shell and meltingly delicious center topped with bitter coffee grounds. A treat for your mouth with contrasting sweet and bitter tastes and crisp and creamy textures.

I also made a white chocolate version which is just as yummy and I really like the colour of the ganache 'stem'.

I've decided these coffee macaron mushrooms are one of my favourite coffee recipes and have submitted it to Not Quite Nigella's win a Nespresso machine You should pop over and have a look if you are in dire need of a new coffee machine like me.

Oh and now that I've made these mushrooms I have another 10 ideas I want to try out, I need so much more time in my days.....

Of course the macarons and coffee ganache from this recipe can also be used to make traditional macarons as well. 

Coffee Macaron Recipe

Ingredients
150g (5  1/4 ounce) ground almonds
150g (5  1/4 ounce) Icing (confectioners) Sugar
110g Egg Whites, (3 7/8ounce) aged at least 3 days, separated into 2 lots of 55g (1 7/8 ounce)
150g (5  1/4 ounce) Granulated Sugar
37g ( 1 1/4 ounce) Water
ground coffee

1. Mix the ground almonds and icing sugar together and pulse a few times in food processor to make almond meal finer. Do not over process as the meal can become oily. Sieve into a large bowl. Add  55g (1 7/8ounce) of the egg whites to the sugar/almond mixture but don’t mix in.

2. Place remaining 55g (1 7/8 ounce) of egg whites in bowl of mixer fitted with the whisk.

3. Pop granulated sugar and water into saucepan stir to combine and cook without stirring to 118C. Once the mixture reaches 115C start mixing the egg whites on high. Once the sugar syrup reaches 118C remove from heat and immediately pour in a thin stream down the side of the mixer bowl continuing to whisk on high.

4. Continue to whisk the meringue on high until the side of the bowl is only a little warm to touch, around 50C.

5. Add meringue mixture to almond mixture and using a large spatula fold the mixture together until it starts to shine and forms a ribbon that stays visible for about 30 seconds.

6. Add the mixture to a piping bag fitted with a plain tip and pipe in lines onto parchment lined baking sheets. To make the macarons as even as possible I apply a constant slow pressure to the piping bag and count a few numbers like up to 3 for each one. Sprinkle a little ground coffee onto the top of half of each macaron.

7. Set aside for about 30 minutes or until the macarons have formed a skin that doesn't stick to your finger.

8. Meanwhile preheat oven to 140C (285 F). Once ready bake the macaroons for around 13 to 15 minutes depending on size, they should not be browned. Remove the baking trays and immediately slide off the macarons and the parchment onto the work surface and let cool completely before removing the shells.

Dark Chocolate Ganache

100ml cream
200g (7 ounces)good quality dark chocolate
1 1/2 to 2 tsp instant coffee or to taste

Bring cream to boil, add coffee and stir until dissolved, pour mixture over finely chopped chocolate and stand 5 mins. Stir until all chocolate has melted. Allow ganache to almost set.

Dissolving the coffee into the cream

(to make a white chocolate variation substitute 200g (7 ounces) white chocolate in place of the dark chocolate and reduce amount of cream to 75ml.)

To make Mushroom macaron

Place ganache into a disposable piping bag and cut across to make an opening approx 1.5 cm or 1/2 inch across. Line a baking tray with parchment paper.
Pipe enough mushroom stems for each macaron leaving enough space between stems for macarons. Allow ganache to set for a while and then top each stem with a macaron. To help adhere macaron you may need to pipe a small amount of ganache directly onto the macaron to use as a 'glue'. Don't press down too hard or the stem will break through the macarons thin delicate shell.

Pop tray into refrigerator until set and remove from tray with a small offset spatula. Remove from refrigerator and allow to return to room temperature prior to serving.

Butterfly and Blossom Birdcage cake putting it together

Sorry for anyone reading these posts that has no interest in this cake but I needed to break it down into a couple of days for my sanity. This is the last one.

I promise in a couple of days I will have a lovely non birdcage related post ready...........

Now that all the hard work has been done comes the fun part, finishing off the Butterfly and Blossom cake.

Marshmallow Fondant Recipe - Oh no it can't be that easy

The pink covering this cake is marshmallow fondant

 A long, long time ago I came across a recipe for marshmallow fondant which can be used to cover a cake in place of rolled fondant.

This looks too easy to be true I thought to myself, and it was relatively easy to make, but surprisingly it worked well, tasted good and ever since that first time I have been a convert.

It is made up of....... yup you guessed right........marshmallow, and sugar and it will taste pretty much like the marshmallows you make it out of. I like to use pascals and where possible the pink and white mix ones. If you use nasty tasting cheap marshmallows, your fondant will taste like those same nasty marshmallows.

These happy little bees are marshmallow fondant with chocolate modeling paste stripes and eyes

It's not suitable for all cakes and situations, but for this butterfly and blossom birdcage cake it worked well.
It is also the recipe I use to make the lollipop cookie pops.

So if your following my instructions on the birdcage cake pictured at the top of this post, I made this fondant on day 2 (night) along with the cakes so they would be ready for icing/decorating the next day.  (Part one consists of making the decorations click here to link)

 This lollipop cookie is made by twirling different coloured marshmallow fondant together

 

Marshmallow fondant recipe

Half recipe will cover the birdcage cake which was a dome shape 14.5 cm (7 1/4 inch) tall and 19 cm  (9 1/2 inch) diameter

750 g ( 1 pound 10  1/2 oz) icing sugar sifted
475 g (1 pound) marshmallows
Crisco (available online from USAfoods in Australia)
3 tsp (1 US Tbsp) water

Pop marshmallows and water in a LARGE microwave safe bowl (this is gonna get messy and sticky). Melt in 30 second increments for 2 1/2 mins total stirring at each interval.

Scary night time photo with poor lighting, but you get the idea. Melt those marshmallows!!

Add icing sugar and mix well.

Grease surface and hands VERY well with crisco, have more ready to regrease as necessary. Knead until smooth and stretchable. If fondant is tearing add 1/2 tsp water at a time and knead again.

Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. Microwave for 10 seconds when ready to use.

To use roll out on surface lightly sprinkled with cornflour (or icing sugar).

Notes for colouring

If you use pink and white marshmallow your fondant will turn out the pink colour of the birdcage cake. I sometimes make half batches separating the pink and white so I can colour the white however I like. It is possible to buy bags of all white pascals marshmallows.

You can add colour at the mixing or kneading stage, or leave plain and colour smaller batches as required.

I use gel colours.

Recipe update - make sure to keep the fondant in a ziplock bag or wrapped with plastic wrap when not using as it will dry out and go hard. If that happens microwave again and add a little bit more crisco. Try to work very quickly.

Tweet, tweet, this is so very very sweet......Butterfly and Blossom Birdcage Cake

I'm adoring this cake I made for a 40th Birthday. Bluebirds, blossoms and butterflies what a sweet combination.

I have come up with a bit of a basic tutorial on how I made it which is pretty long winded and will be broken into a few days, but here it is the first  installment of the Blossom and butterfly birdcage cake epic.

I received a request for a 40th birthday cake which was not specific, just that there were about 100 people coming. After some questioning, I found out that the birthday girl likes chocolate, her favourite colour is purple and that some of the family are gluten intolerant. Follow up questions determined there would be a number of desserts served and not everyone would have cake so serving 100 was optional.

Eeeek - so it was up to me. I looked through my many books for inspiration and came up with a 3 tiered design topped with a faux cupcake with layers of pink and purple. Then I considered the Planet Cake 40th Birthday Cake in their book and popped over to their community and then I saw it...........

Bellasmommy  had as her avatar a birdcage cake and I had to try it. No instructions just a pic of a perfectly cute cake.

Luckily I had so much leeway that all the plans I had already made were turfed and I redrew my decorating schedule for the week.

Yes that's right, for just one cake I do up a schedule after I have drawn a design of the planned cake. This is not just for time management but to ensure that I will have the required equipment and ingredients at each step and in this case to allow time for the bird and tops of the cage to dry/set a little.

My schedule pretty much went roughly like this:

Day 1 make bird, pointy top/handle for cage, blossoms, butterflies and leaves
Day 2 make marshmallow fondant and make both cakes
Day 3 make buttercream and ganache, cut and fill cakes, crumb coat (cover with the ganache or buttercream). Cover the birdcage with fondant and add all decorations.
Day 4 place dowels into bottom tier. Assemble cakes and add any finishing touches such as ribbon.

(Day 3 and 4 could easily be combined)

Day 1 Make bird, handle, blossoms, butterflies and leaves
(where I have used chocolate modeling paste you can just use gumpaste coloured black or brown)

Bird, colour a small amount of rolled fondant blue and shape a flat oval the approx size of the bird required, manipulate the head and tail until shape resembles bird. Make a second smaller ball, flatten and shape into wing, adhere to bird body with tiny amount of water.

Make eye and beak out of small amount of chocolate modeling paste, a tiny round for eye and very tiny and thin log folded to make beak. Adhere to bird and pinch into shape if required.

Place bird on parchment paper to air dry.

Handle shape chocolate modeling paste into log and pinch into a point at middle, manipulate with fingers to make required handle shape pinching together at bottom. Cut excess off with knife.

Make another long log and twirl around in a type of snail shape to make base of handle. Place both pieces on parchment paper to air dry.

Pink Blossoms colour fondant as required and roll out with rolling pin. Cut blossom shapes, place onto non stick foam and using a ball tool with gentle and even pressure rub in small circles to thin out each of the blossom petals. Gently lift into a flower former. Pipe a small dot of royal icing in the middle and pop decorating pearls into the center. I used 3 on the large blossom and 1 in the small.

Small blue Blossoms are made using a small plunger cutter and ejector set with royal icing dots in center.

Leaves colour fondant green and roll our with rolling pin. Cut leaves with PME plunger cutter by pushing down once to cut shape and a second time to indent leaf veins. Place finished leaves on parchment paper.

Butterflies using remaining blue and pink fondant and a PME butterfly plunger cut the butterfly shape and place on cardboard folded into a M with parchment paper and allow to air dry.

 Ok this is a pic of chocolate fondant butterflies but you get the idea

Variations if you do not have the equipment required - 

you could purchase already formed sugar flowers and butterflies from a cake decorating store or supermarket. 

blossoms and leaves could be replaced with buttercream flowers and leaves piped directly onto the birdcage. 

A non edible bird could be purchased from a craft store to replace the edible fondant bird. 

A clean draw handle could be sourced to used on top of cake.

Handle could be made by piping chocolate onto parchment paper (although the chocolate would be very delicate and care would be required.

Mudarons - not quite mud puddles and not quite macarons

So I was sitting around having a chat with my friend jojobirdo when she mentioned a recipe she had just made for Chocolate Mud Puddle Biscuits which consisted of only 5 ingredients and turned out with a delicious brownie texture.

Of course I was instantly intrigued, easy, chocolatey and delicious who wouldn't be. So I copied the recipe into my ideas book with the thought I might try it one day.

But that very night after dinner the craving stuck me and luckily for me I had all the ingredients handy.....almost. Jojobirdo and I had mused how similar the ingredients were to a macaron, except the mud puddle recipe called for crushed nuts instead of ground almond.

So I made a little modification and came up with this cookie which as it turns out looks nothing like the Mud Puddle Cookies I googled, which should spread out while cooking into a flat shiny textured cookie with a crackly finish.

But I am happy with my not really Mud Puddles, they looked a bit like a messy macaron. They are actually really yummy and only took 20 minutes to mix, cook (and eat).

I think I might call them Mudarons.

I also made a variation with marshmallows, and it seems they were so good warm I didn't have any left the next morning for pictures.


Thanks Jojobirdo.

Mudarons makes approx 30
(any US conversions in brackets)

2 cups icing (powdered) sugar
1/3 cup cocoa
1tsp vanilla
2 egg whites
150g (5 1/4 oz) ground almond

Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F) and line baking trays with parchment paper.

Place all ingredients in bowl and  mix with a hand held or stand mixer. Mixture will be very stiff and sticky.

Pop approx 2 tsp onto baking trays allowing a little room to spread.

Bake for 10 mins or until just cooked.

Remove from tray after 5 mins to wire rack. 

Variation Hot Chocolate Mudarons - after 8 mins remove trays and place a marshmallow onto top of each cookie. Return to oven and bake further 2 mins.