Birthday Cake Macarons - Blogiversary

Happy Birthday to my blog! Yay. It's been 3 years since I've started blogging and a year on this blog. I'm glad my med school schedule really allows me to cook and bake so much (yea, right). I might have sacrificed a lot of my exercise time to work on my blog, but a widened girth makes for a satisfying lady :P

Blogging has allowed me to make and try a lot of things. Meet a few blogger friends along the way and on instagram. But mostly, my blog exists to annoy my bf hahaha. He's my hand model, food holder, light reflector holder, prop holder and food tester. Sometimes he has to eat dinner at 3pm because I need to take pictures before the light goes down and by the time I'm done with my photoshoot, he needs to reheat it. Oops... I could keep going on but I think you get the idea (and you will think I'm a monster). Thank you for putting up with me! And a thank you to my roommate, who I've now recruited to hold my props. Lol. But, I make sure I feed them with lots of yummy goodies.

And thank you to my readers (if I actually have any ︶︹︺)!!

Birthday Cake Macarons

makes about 30-35 

Macaron Batter
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup finely ground almonds
2 large egg whites, aged 2 days in fridge and 1 day at room temp
5 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla
pinch of cream of tartar (it was really humid when I was making these, but this is optional)
sprinkles

Cheesecake filling
4 oz cream cheese, softened
2 tbsp butter, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar (adjust according to taste)
1/2-1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp sprinkles

Filling - *I like to do this step when I'm waiting for the macaron shells to dry

• Whip softened butter and cream cheese together until light and fluffy. Whip in the powdered sugar and vanilla. Stir in the sprinkles
• Fill a pastry bag with the filling and let chill

Macaron shells

1. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicon mat and get a pastry bag with a 1/2 inch plain tip prepared
2. In a food processor pulse almond flour and powdered sugar until mixed and fluffy
3. In the bowl of your stand mixer (if you have one, or just an egg beater bowl... I really don't recommend whisking by hand!), beat egg whites with the whisk attachment on medium low for 2 mins, gradually adding in the sugar.
4. Increase speed to 7 to whip for another 3 minutes and then at 8-10 for another 4 minutes. You should be getting a stiff meringue that you can make soft peaks. Add the vanilla in the last 4 minutes.
5. Fold the dry ingredients in 2 batches with a rubber spatula and make smooth sweeps to the bottom of the bowl. You do want to deflate the meringue a bit so squishing to mix to knock out some air is okay! After about 50-ish foldings, the batter should look glossy and when you drop some from your spatula to the batter, it takes about 20 secs for it to mold back into the mix. Don't over mix or it will a runny and watery mess!
6. Fill your pastry bag (hold it up in a tall glass..makes life so easy) and pipe batter onto the prepared baking sheets in 3.5cm circles, spaced 1" apart. 
7. Rap the baking sheet a few times about 1 inch above the counter top to flatten the macarons and to get rid of bubbles. Sprinkle sprinkles!
8. Let them rest at room temp for 45-60mins. The tops should be dry and nothing should stick to your finger if you poke them. 
9. Preheat your oven to 315 F. Bake for 15 mins, rotate pans and then bake for another 3-5 minutes. You can check they are done by lifting one macaron you can sacrifice. If the feet comes off, leave it in a minute longer. It's better to overbake than underbake. 
10. Let cool completely before removing them from the paper. Line up similar sized ones and pipe the chilled cheesecake filling onto 1 shell. Sandwich together. Let them sit in the fridge in a sealed container for at least 1 day before serving. They don't taste as good fresh out because the inside of the macaron shells need some time to soften and for the filling flavors to come together.