Candy Cane Macarons

Macarons are one of my favorite things to make when it comes to desserts. Although it takes time and patience during the process, howver, in the end, it is so worth it. If you do it right, the macarons come out every so beautifully. Of course i did my research on how to get the perfect macaron first. Anyways, today, I am sharing with you guys something that would benefit this holiday season. These are great to surprise someone with a treat that is not cookies or regular candy canes. Happy Eating~ 🙂

• Servings: about 25 macarons
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• For the macaron shells*:
  200 grams confectioners’ sugar
• 110 grams almonds (blanched, slivered, or sliced)
• 90 grams egg whites (aged at room temperature for 1 day or 3-5 days in the fridge)
• 25 grams granulated sugar

Please note – measuring by weight is essential for macarons, so volume measures will not be provided.

For the filling:

• ½ cup sugar
• 2 large egg whites
• 12 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
• ½ tsp. vanilla extract

For garnish:

• Crushed candy canes**

1. To make the macaron shells, combine the confectioners’ sugar and almonds in a food processor.  Pulse until the almonds are finely ground and the mixture is well blended.  In the bowl of a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites on medium speed until foamy.  Increase the speed to medium-high and continue to beat, gradually adding the granulated sugar.  Beat until a stiff, glossy meringue forms (do not over-beat).  Add the ground nut mixture to the bowl with the egg whites.  Fold together with a spatula until all of the dry ingredients are incorporated and the batter is thick and smooth.  (This should not take more than 50 strokes.)
2. Line baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper.  Fit a pastry bag with a plain round tip and pipe small rounds onto the prepared baking sheets, about 1½ inches in diameter.  Let the piped rounds sit at room temperature for 30-60 minutes to harden their shells.
3. Preheat the oven to 280˚ F.  Bake for 15-20 minutes.  Let cool 15-20 minutes before removing from the baking sheet.  Let cool completely before filling or storing.
4. To make the frosting, combine the sugar and egg whites in a heatproof bowl set over simmering water.  Heat, whisking frequently, until the mixture is hot to the touch and the sugar is completely dissolved.  Transfer to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment.  Beat on medium speed until a thick and shiny meringue has formed and the bowl is cool to the touch.  Reduce the mixer speed to medium-low.  Add in the butter 1 tablespoon at a time, waiting until each is incorporated before adding more.  Once all the butter is incorporated, increase the speed to medium-high and beat until thick and smooth.  (The mixture may look soupy or curdled but it will come together eventually – just keep beating!)  Blend in the vanilla.
5. To assemble the macarons, pair up the shells by size.  Add the finished frosting to a pastry bag fitted with a plain round tip.  Pipe a small round of frosting onto the flat side of one shell from each pair.  Sandwich together with the other shell and push gently together so that the frosting reaches the edges of the cookies.  Place the crushed candy canes in a shallow dish.  Gently roll the assembled macarons in the crushed candy canes so they adhere to the frosting.* If you haven’t made macarons before, you might want to check out this post about my first time making them.  It discusses some of the basics of this sometimes finicky cookie and has some step-by-step photos that might be helpful.

   **It is really important to crush your candy canes well.  All too often I see holiday desserts with large, sharp chunks of candy cane that seem more likely to draw blood than make a dessert festive and appetizing.  Plus, crushing them is so fun!  I put them in a large plastic bag, grab the meat mallet and hammer away to be sure they are evenly ground.

Adapted from Annie’s Eats

Sunflower Cupcakes

 

Aren’t these cupcakes fun?? SInce the weather has gotten a little chilly over here where I live, I decided to add a touch of sunshine by making these cute sunflower cupcakes! They are so much fun and easy to make and it is a great activity for you to do with the kids! To make the process a little father for you, you are more than welcome to make a boxed cupcake recipe instead of making it from scratch. Also, if you want to save even more of your time, you may also use store bought frosting (not icing!!) to pipe the sunflower pedals shown below.

In a small bowl, take out about 1/3 cup of frosting and add in a drop of green food coloring and mix until fully incorprated. Then, in another bowl, take the remaining frosting and color the rest of it bright yellow using the yellow food coloring. Set up two piping bags (or zipblock bags with a corner snipped off) and place the #352 Wilton piping tip in the open corner and fill it with yellow icing (filled only halfway so the bag does not over flow!!).

If you don’t have couplers or a piping tip, this YouTube video shows you how you can pipe leaves without them! I just prefer to use my piping tips because I have them, and they make the process a bit easier.

Spread a layer of green icing ontop of each cupcake to make the green “grass”.

Once you are done spreading the green frosting on all of the cupcakes, place one Oreo cookie ontop of each cupcake for the “sunflower seeds”

Grab your prepared green frosting bag and hold your piping bag at a 45 degree angle. Aiming towards middle of the Oreo where the Oero filling is, start piping around the Oreo. To do this, you push the frosting out and slowly pull it towards the edge of the cupcake, releasing pressure and lifting up slightly at the end to make it make a point. After that is done, you do the same thing ontop of the first flower pedel layer and continue until you have the desired amount of flower pedal layers on your cupcake.

Now you are ready to WOW the crowd!

• Servings: 28 cupakes
• Time: 2 hours
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Ingredients

• Cupcakes – baked and cooled to room temperature
• Frosting (not icing! I used homemade buttercream)
• Yellow food coloring
• Green food coloring
• A spoon
• Oreos (One package)
• A piping bag (I used zipblock sandwich bags)
• Wilton piping tip #352

You are more than welcome to make cupcakes from a box however, for this post, I just this pumpkin cupcake recipe and it made about 28 cupcakes.

1. First, bake and cool cupcakes.
2. In a small bowl, take out about 1/3 cup of frosting and add in a drop of green food coloring and mix until fully incorprated. Then, in another bowl, take the remaining frosting and color the rest of it bright yellow using the yellow food coloring.
3. Set up two piping bags (or zipblock bags with a corner snipped off) and place the #352 Wilton piping tip in the open corner and fill it with yellow icing (filled only halfway so the bag does not over flow!!).  If you don’t have couplers or a piping tip, this YouTube video shows you how you can pipe leaves without them! I just prefer to use my piping tips because I have them, and they make the process a bit easier.
4. Spread a layer of green icing ontop of each cupcake to make the green “grass”.
5. Once you are done spreading the green frosting on all of the cupcakes, place one Oreo cookie ontop of each cupcake for the “sunflower seeds”
6. Grab your prepared green frosting bag and hold your piping bag at a 45 degree angle. Aiming towards middle of the Oreo where the Oero filling is, start piping around the Oreo. To do this, you push the frosting out and slowly pull it towards the edge of the cupcake, releasing pressure and lifting up slightly at the end to make it make a point. After that is done, you do the same thing ontop of the first flower pedel layer and continue until you have the desired amount of flower pedal layers on your cupcake.

Vegan Chocolate Avocado Cake w/ Raspberry Buttercream

This chocolate avocado cake is vegan friendly and contains no dairy or eggs! So soft and moist, I was so surprised of how an avocado can really change the texture of the cake. If you want, you are more than welcome to replace the butter with an Earth Balance vegan butter for the buttercream frosting recipe. For the filling, I filled it with a 1/2 a cup of blackberry jam, making sure the filling was not too over filled. Then, for decoration, I topped my cake with a packet of broken strawberry Pop Tarts to enhance the presentation. Happy Eating~ 🙂

 

Chocolate Avocado Cake with Blackberry Frosting

• Servings: 12
• Time: 1 hour and 15 minutes
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• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 6 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil (I used almond oil)
• 1/2 cup soft avocado, well mashed, about 1 medium avocado
• 2 cups water
• 2 Tablespoons white vinegar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Blackberry Buttercream:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 3-4 cups powdered sugar
• 4-5 tablespoons blackberry puree, strained

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease and flour two 8 or 9-inch rounds.  Set aside.
2. Sift together all of the dry ingredients except the sugar.  Set that aside too.
3. Mix all the wet ingredients together in a bowl, including the super mashed avocado.
4. Add sugar into the wet mix and stir.
5. Mix the wet with the dry all at once, and beat with a whisk (by hand) until smooth.
6. Pour batter into a greased cake tins. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
7. Let cakes cool in pan for 15 minutes, then turn out onto cooling racks to cool completely before frosting with avocado buttercream.
8. For the buttercream: Beat butter for 2 minutes. Slowly add powdered sugar until the frosting becomes very thick. Slowly add berry puree a little at a time. Stop once the buttercream becomes the right consistency. If it becomes too loose, add more powdered sugar to thicken.

Persimmon Cake w/ White Chocolate Ganache

What?? Did I say persimmon?? Yes. Yes indeed I did. It’s close to winter time and so, it’s time for persimmon fruit season! For those of your who don’t know what persimmon fruits are, they are round (or oval) red-ish orange fruits that are originated in East Asia. These fruits are filled with vitamins, minerals, and anti-oxidents that promotes lots of protein, vitamin C, and dietary fiber! Your can easily find these in most supermarkets, but they might be sold as dried persimmon. Most likely, you will find fresh persimmon fruits in  Asian supermarkets around you. Make sure to eat the persimmon ripe because if still unripened, the flesh of the persimmon isn’t as juicy and delicious.

 

Isn’t it just beautiful? My kitchen was overstocked with persimmon fruits that my uncle gave us last week from his persimmon tree. About 15 of these fruits fully ripe, I just had to do something about it! First, I pureed the persimmon pulp in my blender and added it to thise cake recipe 🙂 In the end, the decoration of this cake ended up looking like cotton candy hahaha. Anyways, to make it a bit more fun, I added a few drops of light blue food coloring in the white chocolate ganache and poured it over the cake. Another thing I added were my homemade caramel decorations on top with some fresh berries. Happy Eating~ 🙂

Persimmon Cake w/ White Chocoalte Ganache

• Servings: 8
• Time: 3 hours 15 minutes
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For the Persimmon Cake
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
1 cup milk
2 cups persimmon pulp puree
2 eggs
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
 

For the Buttercream Icing
3 sticks butter, softened
5 cups powder sugar
3 tablespoons heavy cream
 

For the White Chocolate Ganache
4 oz. white chocolate, chopped
¼ cup heavy cream
 

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and butter and flour four, 6 inch cake pans or three 8 inch cake pans.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar in a bowl; set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, persimmon pulp, milk, and vanilla extract until fully incorporated. Fold in the dry flour mixture into the wet mixture until no lumps remain (make sure not to over stir!). Pour evenly into each of your prepared cake pans.
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the cake center, comes out clean. Cool on rack completely before removing from the pans.
4. While the cake is cooling, make your buttercream icing. First, in your fitted electric machine with a whisk attachment, add in your softened butter and stir on medium speed until the butter is nice and smooth. Add in the powder sugar, a little at a time, and add in the heavy cream half way. Once smooth, stir in the vanilla extract until fully incorporated. Color your icing to your liking and decorate your layers of cake.
5. For the ganache, in a small sauce pan, heat your heavy cream on medium heat until it starts to boil. Once boiling, slowly pour it into your chopped chocolate and stir until the chocolate is all melted. You can add any food color you want to your liking or leave it as it is. Your can immediately pour the ganache onto your cake or wait a few minutes for the ganache to thicken as it cools down.