Easter Carrot Cake – Day Two – Easter Bunny Macarons
Here comes Peter Cottontail, hoppin’ down the bunny trail! Hippy, Hoppity, Easter’s on its way!
I love Easter, but I love Spring even more. We got another batch of snow on Sunday night and I was so bummed! My bulbs are starting to push up and there were a few buds on the plants that enjoyed the nice 60 degree weather last week. I think Old Man Winter is trying his darnedest not to let the season go.
To celebrate Easter approaching, I made some Bunny Macarons.
First off, don’t be afraid to try making Macarons. They are a finicky, but they should not be feared. Watch a few YouTube videos and check out a few different recipes. They aren’t all the same, kinda like chocolate chip cookie recipes.
I made Macaron for the first time at a cooking class. My macs didn’t turn out well, but I’m totally blaming that on not having a proper mixer and having to whip the egg whites by had with a whisk! Talk about torture!
But I tried at home with three different recipes. You can read about my experience about it here.
The trick is to weigh your ingredients.
Measuring out a cup of almond meal and a cup of powdered sugar isn’t going to cut it. You MUST weigh it.
The second trick is to let them start to dry before placing them into the oven. This will help to seal the tops and create that nice foot as it puffs up from the steam.
I ended up making these twice. I was a bit upset about that… I made my first batch of all heads. I figured I would have full cookies with heads in the front and back. I decorated half of them and took all the photos in the collage in the directions. However, I didn’t want to leave them out on the counter overnight, so I put them into the oven… The next morning I got up and started prepping for the cake and TOTALLY FORGOT about the beautiful Macarons in the oven.
They were beyond repairable. The candy bows were cooked and the oil stained the cookies. Also, they got really, really hard and were inedible. I was so bummed! Please don’t do what I did, just leave them out and cover them up if you aren’t going to fill them right away.
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
- 100 grams Powdered Sugar
- 100 grams Almond Flour
- 1 Tablespoon cocoa
- 2 egg whites
- ⅛ teaspoon cream of tartar
- 55 grams of superfine sugar
- Edible Food Coloring Pens
- Black Candy Melts
- White Chocolate
- Mini Heart Sprinkles
- Bow Mold
- Brown Jimmies, crushed
- Line two baking sheets with parchment or a silicon mat. Prepare a pastry bag with a large round tip and preheat the oven to 350℉.
- Combine the powdered sugar, almond flour, and cocoa in a food processor and pulse several times to combine.
- Place the egg whites into a mixer with a whisk attachment and whip until foamy. Add in the cream of tartar and increase the speed to medium high. When soft peaks start to form, gradually add in the superfine sugar. Increase the speed to high and whip until stiff peaks form.
- Remove the mixing bowl and sift ⅓ of the almond sugar mixture over the meringue. Fold in until it's incorporated and then add in another ⅓ of the mixture. Fold again and then add in all of the flour and sugar folding until the mixture is thick and viscus and falls off the spatula in a long ribbon.
- Transfer the mixture into the piping bag and pipe out 1½ inch circles, adding "ears" to half of them, leaving the other half round.
- Bang the cookie sheet on the counter to get out any air bubbles. Let them sit for 20 - 30 minutes and make sure that their surfaces are dry to the touch.
- Reduce the heat to 325℉ and bake one sheet at a time for 10 minutes, turning the sheet half way through.
- Let the cookies cool completely on the sheets. Do not try to remove them while they are still warm, they will most likely rip the bottoms. Peel away the parchment or silicon from the cool Macarons.
- Use Edible Markers or black candy melts to draw on the eyes and little mouth. Add a white dot of candy to the eyes and to the nose. Attach the mini heart sprinkle for the nose. Make bows with white candy and black candy. Attach the bows to make girls and boys.
- In my first batch of bunnies, I also added pink cheeks with the edible markers and gave the girls some eyelashes. Design them as you'd like.
- Add little bunny tails to the round cookies. Add a dollop of black candy to the lower center of the cookie and add some crushed jimmies to give it some fluff.
- When you are ready to serve the cookies, add your filling and sandwich them together. I used some of the Orange Cream Cheese Frosting.
Love these little guys!! They are just too cute!!
Thanks so much. I was very pleased on how they turned out!
Oh my god. These are adorable and I applaud your masterful macaron skillz.
Thank you! Thank you! I was just patient and held my breath, did a little offering to the Macaron gods and wore my lucky undies. It all worked out great
these are so cute!
These macarons are too cute! LOVE them!
Thank you. I thought so too.
These are the absolute cutest cookies! If I wasn’t so afraid of making macaroons, I’d try them. They look fabulous!
Just take your time and weigh the ingredients. It’s baking, not rocket science.
These are such great fun, what a fab idea, pity about the ones that burnt.
I was so bummed to have to make them again. They were so perfect. Luckily, the second batch turned out just as well.
Too cute!! I may have to make these for my son’s classroom!
Good luck! Take your time and weigh your ingredients.
Love them!!!
PS Pinning and Sharing
Hugs from Freedom Fridays With All My Bloggy Friends
thanks so much for stopping by and pinning
Thanks for sharing this cute post at the Say G’Day Saturday linky party. I will be featuring this post at this weekend’s ink up. I’ve just pinned this and shared on Google+ too.
Hope you can join in again this weekend!
Best wishes,
Natasha in Oz
Thanks for the feature
Completely adorable! Thanks for linking up with What’s Cookin’ Wednesday!
thanks for having me over, Karly!