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.

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Red Velvet Blueberry Cheesecake Macarons

Happy 4th! I am still so excited about Brazil's win over Columbia. Oh my gosh, that was an exciting game!! Woooo. Never seen so many grown men cry. Also, James Rodríguez **swoon**. I am betting Argentina and Brazil will go into the finals. That would be so awesommmeee. 

My mum is on a macaron fever with me ha. She loves them and makes me bake them every week. Here's a patriotic macaron for today! Happy nomming!

Red Velvet Blueberry Cheesecake Macarons

makes about 25 macarons

Red Velvet Macaron Shells
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup almond powder
1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
2 egg whites (aged 1 day in fridge and 1-2 days at room temp)
1/2 tsp vanilla
red dye (gel) 1 tsp

Blueberry Cheesecake Filling
1/4 cup blueberries
2 tbsp water
1 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch
4 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 stick butter, softened
1/4 cup powdered sugar

• Blueberry Cheesecake: whisk all blueberries, water, sugar in a small pot. Heat on medium and stir from time to time until blueberries start bursting. Add cornstarch and stir until pretty thick. Remove from heat and cool. Whip cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy. Beat in powdered sugar. Add the cooled blueberry jam and whirl only 3 times. You don't just want purple goo! Fill up a piping bag to chill in the fridge.
• Macarons: 
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, powdered sugar, cocoa powder until mixed and fluffy
3. In the bowl of your stand mixer, 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 with.
5. Fold the dry ingredients in 2 batches with a rubber spatula and make smooth sweeps to the botto
6. Fold the dry ingredients in 2 batches with a rubber spatula and make smooth sweeps to the bottom of the bowl. Add vanilla extract and dye and continue deflating the meringue. After about 40-50 foldings it should look glossy and when you drop some from your spatula to the batter, it takes about 10-20 secs for it to mold back into the mix
7. Fill your pastry bag and pipe batter onto the prepared baking sheets in 3.5cm circles, spaced 1" apart. 
8. Rap the baking sheet a few times about 1 inch above the counter top to flatten the macarons and to get rid of bubbles. I also use a toothpick to pop the stray ones. Let them rest at room temp for 45-60mins. The tops should be REALLY dry and nothing should stick to your finger if you poke them. 
9. Preheat your oven to 300 F in the last 2 minutes of the drying wait. Bake for 15 mins each pan separately, 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 longer. You always want to overbake than underbake.
10. Let cool completely before removing them from the paper. Line up similar sized ones and pipe the chilled curd filling onto 1 shell. Sandwich together.
11. Let them sit in the fridge in a sealed container for at least 1 day before serving. Seriously!! They taste 100x better when the insides of the macaron shells soften a bit and the filling flavors come together.

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Lemon Mango Macarons

Summer holiday is almost coming to an end! I feel like I haven't had much time to really do what I want before going to school again. Like traveling to Iceland, going on the Lord of the Rings Trail in New Zealand... I wouldn't even mind Hawaii! But, I guess that's what happens when you don't plan and then you're stuck in a lab for your whole summer dissecting mice. Hmm... At least I should get my butt over to the beach while I'm in LA. I bet I'm the only person who lives in LA, who goes to the beach only once a year :\

But, I am going on a cross-country road trip soon... ONE WHOLE week with my mother. Hopefully we'll both survive. Because, mothers. Ya know?!

In the heat of the summer, I made these light and bright lemon-y macarons. Don't they just look like sunshine? ;)

Lemon Mango Macarons

makes about 25 macarons

Lemon Macaron Shells
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup finely ground almonds
2 tsp lemon zest, dried overnight
2 large egg whites (aged 2 day in fridge and 1 day at room temp)
5 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp lemon extract
yellow food coloring (optional)

Mango Curd
1/3 cup mango, pureed and strained (1-2 medium sized mangoes)
1/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/8 tsp tsp salt
2 egg yolks
2-3 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp butter (remove from heat and add)

• Mango Curd: whisk all the ingredients except the butter in a small pot. Heat on medium and keep whisking it from time to time until it starts to simmer. Keep whisking until its pretty thick and starts spitting large bubbles from the top. You want it pretty thick so you don't get your macarons soggy. Whisk and whisk! Don't let it burn on the bottom! Remove from heat and stir in butter. Let it cool and then fill up a piping bag to chill in the fridge.
• Macarons: 
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, powdered sugar, dried lemon zest until mixed and fluffy
3. In the bowl of your stand mixer, 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 with.
5. Fold the dry ingredients in 2 batches with a rubber spatula and make smooth sweeps to the bottom of the bowl. Add the lemon extract and continue deflating the meringue. After about 40-50 foldings it should look glossy and when you drop some from your spatula to the batter, it takes about 10-20 secs for it to mold back into the mix
6. Fill your pastry bag 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. I also use a toothpick to pop the stray ones. Let them rest at room temp for 45-60mins. The tops should be REALLY dry and nothing should stick to your finger if you poke them. 
8. Preheat your oven to 300 F in the last 2 minutes of the drying wait. Bake for 15 mins each pan separately, 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 longer. You always want to overbake than underbake.
9. Let cool completely before removing them from the paper. Line up similar sized ones and pipe the chilled curd filling onto 1 shell. Sandwich together.
10. Let them sit in the fridge in a sealed container for at least 1 day before serving. Seriously!! They taste 100x better when the insides of the macaron shells soften a bit and the filling flavors come together.

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Matcha Macarons with White Chocolate Ganache

I am absolutely obsessed with Korean dramas right now. It's so bad for my health because I stay up all night watching them. I just finished a 20 episode one today, that are 1 hour long each in 2 days! My eyes are about to shrivel up and die in its sockets. I bet I'm going to sleep through my bus stop today, which I have done too many times and walked home to spare the bus fare back to my original stop :(

I can't even explain why I watch them. The love triangles drive me crazy, the acting is terrible, it makes me cringe when they try to speak English, the overdone story of rich boy gets poor puppy eyed girl drives me nuts.... I could go on forever but I just can't stay away from them!!  Somebody pull me away from the TV!!!

Now that I don't have my trusty KA mixer, I'm not in much of a mood to bake. I want to bake bread but the thought of kneading makes my arm willy-nilly :P Here's a macaron recipe I did before I left for LA (tweaked from Piña Colada Macarons). My macaron feet looks soo good now.

Also I have a giveaway (click!) this week. Don't forget to enter!

Matcha Macarons with White Chocolate Ganache

makes about 25 macarons
notes below ***

Macaron Shells
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup finely ground almonds
2.5 tsp matcha powder
2 large egg whites, ages 2 day in fridge and 1 day at room temp
5 tbsp granulated sugar

White Chocolate Ganache Filling
6oz white chocolate, chopped (or use chips, roughly 1 cup)
5 tbsp heavy cream

• Filling:

1. Heat heavy cream in a small pan until it is just about to simmer. Pour over chopped white chocolate (in a bowl) and let that sit for 1 min
2. Then mix until you have a nice creamy consistency. Let it cool until okay to touch
3. Fill a piping bag and place into the refrigerator until ready to pipe

• Macarons:

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, matcha powder and powdered sugar until mixed and fluffy
3. In the bowl of your stand mixer, 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 with. Try not to over beat.
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 and after about 40-50 foldings it should look glossy and when you drop some from your spatula to the batter, it takes about 10 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 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. 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. 
8. Preheat your oven to 310 F. Bake for 16-18 mins each pan separately and rotating pans halfway. You can check they are done by lifting one macaron you can sacrifice. If the feet comes off, leave it in longer. You always want to overbake than underbake.
9. Let cool completely before removing them from the paper. Line up similar sized ones and pipe the chilled filling onto 1 shell. Sandwich together.
10. Let them sit in the fridge in a sealed container for at least 1 day before serving. Seriously!! They taste 100x better when the insides of the macaron shells soften a bit and the filling flavors come together

***

• I let the egg whites sit in the fridge longer (2 days) and let them rest outside for 2 days too
• I baked them at a longer temperature. But if you bake them too long, they will turn brown and won't keep green. You may want to use green food coloring
• It could be difficult to lift the macarons from the paper. When it has cooled for about 5-10mins, sprinkle some water on the baking tray under the parchment paper. The steam helps them unstick but peel them off quickly or they might get soggy

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Boston Cream Pie Macarons

Yay It's the weekend! And the weather is perfect and I'm slightly less stressed than usual :P I've been baking all morning and finally tackled making macarons. This was my first time baking them too. I know I'm a little behind the macaron blogging game, but the price of almond flour and everything else can quickly add up. Food and feeding my ever hangry state has turned my pockets inside out. I'm going to seriously live on carrot sticks next. Although, I did do that once and turned yellow-orange. True story. That's how the bf met me. He thought I was normally orange in color. I don't really know how anyone can be attracted to an oompa loompa. But hey! Everyone for everybody ;)

Since this was my first time making macarons, I was surprised at how easy they were to make! And when I saw feet. I was like YEESSSS!! It does take a little bit of prep because you used aged egg whites but otherwise they are pretty simple... as long as you follow a good recipe.

Some notes...I did one batch with a silicon mat and one with just parchment paper with a template I printed off the internet (3.5cm diameter). I thought it was easier using parchment paper and the shells weren't as hollow. Although, the shells slide right off the silicon mat whereas the paper stuck a little.  If you ever wanted to make macarons, you really should. Nothing to be intimidated by. Heck, if I can, I'm sure you can too :)

Boston Cream Pie Macarons

Makes about 20 macarons
adapted from shopsucre
Macaron Batter
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup finely ground almonds
2 large egg whites, ages 1 day in fridge and 1 day at room temp
5 tbsp granulated sugar

Custard filling
2 egg yolks
2 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup flour (or 1.5 tbsp cornstarch for gf)
1 cup whole milk
1 tsp vanilla
5 tbsp butter
1 cup powdered sugar

**or the lazy man's custard: 1 box instant vanilla pudding powder, 3/4 cup whole milk, 1/2 cup powdered sugar mixed into 3 tbsp whipped butter (I used this recipe for my pictures)

Chocolate drizzle
1/2 cup whole milk
1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate

• Custard: whisk all the ingredients other than the butter and powdered sugar in a small pot. Heat on medium and keep whisking it from time to time until it starts to simmer. Keep whisking until its pretty thick and starts spitting large bubbles from the top. Remove from heat and let it cool. In another bowl, cream butter and powdered sugar until light and fluffy. Fold together custard and butter mix. Chill in a piping bag.
• Macarons:

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 with. Don't over beat it or bad things will happen (apparently...)
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 30-50 foldings (I didn't count but everyone talks about that magic number). I just did it until the batter looked 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. 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. 
8. Preheat your oven to 325 F in the last 2 minutes. 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 longer. You always want to overbake than underbake.
9. Let cool completely before removing them from the paper. Line up similar sized ones and pipe the chilled custard filling onto 1 shell. Sandwich together. Heat milk in the microwave or small sauce pot, remove and stir in chocolate until it melts into a thick sauce. Drizzle onto assembled macaron tops. 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.

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