Unicorn French Macarons with a “raw” Cake Batter Filling
Did you know and realize my little girl is going to be 4 next Tuesday. How in the world did that happen? Someone please tell me and help slow down time! It’s flying by sooooooooooo fast. I remember as a kid they said it would but dang! Time really needs to slow down. I remember as a little kid how we wanted time to speed up so we could get our driver’s licenses, graduate high school, be of age to vote and drink and the list goes on. When I got to 25 I was done… that meant my car insurance dropped and I was okay with that. Then I wanted time to just slow down… but unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way.
With Abug’s impending birthday (I use those big words for my friend Jody haha… Hi Jody) it was time to start thinking about and planning for her birthday party. Lately, she’s been all about unicorns. This has been an ongoing thing for oh I don’t know… since before Christmas. My dad found a pony we could make into a unicorn for her for Christmas but it was in Iowa, at least 6-8 hours away and we didn’t have time to drive up and buy him. I’m kind of okay with that… she does have Aloha after all. But that’s another story for another day…
So far, every birthday has had a theme. Her first birthday was horses, the second was Minnie Mouse, last year was Princess Elena, and this year is Unicorns. Truth be told, last year I really thought was going to be Frozen, but at the last minute, she chose Princess Elena. That was cool since we went to Mexico last May and she went with us. But back to this year… if you remember, Tbug is only with us every other weekend. If I needed I could have tried to get her for a birthday party but… this week she’s off in Colorado with church camp so that’s out. With all the different hurdles I had 2 weekends for an option for a birthday party… last weekend, June 16 or 17 or July 1st. Guys, the struggle is REAL!
I think I’m going into more details about the birthday than the issue at hand though… the Macarons. Long story short, we’ll go into more details about the birthday party at a later date… but today… long story short, the theme is Unicorns. For the last month, I’ve been researching Unicorn cakes and trying to figure out what to do for her birthday party/parties (another story for another day also). So I came up with the cake idea. Then somehow in all my research, I came across Unicorn Macarons. Actually… I found a Macaron video in the process of cake research… and then I got it in my head I wanted to make Macarons. I also went as far as looking for Unicorn Macarons.
Are you as lost as I am? Let’s get out the paper and crayons and draw a picture to make this a little more clear!!
- I was doing research for Unicorn Birthday cakes. I have a whole blog post on that… whew, it’s a doozy!
- In my research, I came across a YouTube channel for Cupcake Jemma. She had two different YouTube videos I watched. One was on Rainbow Cake and the other was on Rainbow Frosting.
- So let’s just say I got drawn into watching YouTube videos by Cupcake Jemma.
- One such video she had up was How to make Macarons, a Master Class.
- Then I got it in my head I wanted to make Unicorn Macarons for Abug’s birthday party. On the right side of the YouTube videos, I found a Unicorn Macaron video by Rosanna Pansino.
- But I didn’t want to use her Macaron recipe, I wanted to try the one Cupcake Jemma did in her master class.
- So I picked and chose what I wanted to do. Unicorn macarons with Rosanna’s template, Cupcake Jemma’s recipe, and yeah… My Tuesday was shot.
Why was my Tuesday shot you ask?
Well, I put my laptop in the kitchen with me and baked Macarons along with Cupcake Jemma and her sidekick Dane who apparently makes these for a living at her shop in SoHo there in London, England. It’s gotta work, right? WRONG! Don’t get me wrong, I’ll try their way again and maybe have success but last Tuesday was a total blow to my ego. I spent 5 hours total working on their macarons only to get the below picture. The feet that are supposed to be on a Macaron were way out instead of right under. They tasted good, but dang, it was a total mess and I wasted an entire morning on a bummer.
I went back to my original Macaron recipe that I tried a couple months ago. In 2 hours I turned out 2 batches of PERFECT Macarons thanks to Bigger Bolder Baking Gemma. I still used Rosanna’s template for Unicron Macarons. And then I ran across a video for Cupcake Jemma’s Birthday Cake Macarons and used her filling for the “raw” Cake Batter Buttercream. Let’s just say it was all magical.
I should point out if you see the flowers on my Macarons versus the video for Rosanna’s… I got that idea from a completely different video which I don’t even remember who did it at this point. I’m telling you, these last few weeks I’ve done so much research for the perfect birthday cake and perfect macarons and unicorn everything. And I know, nothing is Perfect, trust me I know… But that doesn’t mean I wasn’t attempting my idea of perfect anyway!
Take home message
- Nothing is perfect. I know. I’m okay with that.
- Use recipes you’re familiar with when you want to achieve “perfect.”
- Don’t be afraid to start over. It’s okay.
- If you want to make these Unicorn Macarons you’ll need:
- Unicorn Macaron template
- Gold Luster Dust
- Pink Luster Dust
- Paint Brush
- Clear Alcohol or almond extract to help with the gold luster dust (and maybe to get yourself drunk… no judgment here)
- piping bags
- piping tips (I used a Wilton 12 and a Wilton 1M)
- edible ink markers
- A lot of time and patience
- A good sense of humor
- Have a sense of humor. When things don’t go right, back up 10 yards and punt again. You’re bound to make a goal. And I finally did.
- Oh yeah, one last tip… if you trace your macaron pattern off onto the parchment paper, remember to turn it over… trust me on that! unless you want that graphite to transfer over onto your baked cookie. Yup… guilty… I forgot. It happens.