Italian Meringue Macarons Layered Mini Cake 馬卡龍迷你多層小蛋糕

I made macarons for a few times and I still prefer using Italian way to do it. Although it is more complicated but it can guarantee successful. But I will try the French way again next time. I am planning to bake some macarons for cake decoration purpose. And I also try to use macarons to make a macarons cake for my friend's birthday. I will need to prepare different size of macarons and place them in layer with cake and frosting in between them. Sounds interesting. Let's do it!

Recipe: (can make around 80 shells. That is about 40 macarons)
Italian Meringue Macarons
200g almond meal or ground blanched almonds
200g confectioners’ sugar
200g sugar
50g water
150g egg whites, divided into two 75g portions


Directions:

1. Stack two baking trays on top of each other. Line with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
2. Process almond meal with confectioners’ sugar in a food processor (Pic 1-3). Sieve out any large bits of almond (Pic 4,5).
3. Combine sugar and water in a saucepan (Pic 6). Heat on medium until all the sugar is dissolved.
   
4. Meanwhile, place 75g of egg whites in a mixer bowl with the whisk attachment .
5. Continue cooking until the sugar syrup reaches 118 C/245 F (Pic 7). While the sugar is cooking, begin whisking the egg whites. They should reach stiff peaks by the time the syrup is at 245 F. If it whips too fast, turn down or turn off the mixer.
6. Turn the mixer speed to low. Carefully pour the sugar syrup in a slow stream into the mixer (Pic 8).
7. Turn the mixer speed to high and let the meringue for several minutes until it has cooled and appears glossy and firm (Pic 9).
8. In a large bowl, combine the almond meal mixture with the remaining 75g of egg whites (Pic 10) until partially combined (Pic 11).
   
9. Scoop the meringue on top of the almond meal mixture. Using a spatula or dough scraper, carefully fold the meringue in, trying not to deflate it (Pic 12-14).
10. The final batter should be thick and flow slowly like magma. Do not overmix.
11. Scoop the batter into a piping bag fitted with a ½” diameter plain tip (N0. 12) (Pic 15).
12. Pipe 1 ½” rounds of batter onto the prepared baking sheets. Let the sheets sit for about 20 minutes to let the shells harden (Pic 16).
13. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 160 C/320 F.
14. Bake one set of macarons for 15 minutes, rotating once. (Pic 17)
15. Let tray cool for a few minutes before removing from the silicone mat. Let finish cooling on wire racks.

TIPS: For bigger macarons, bake longer in time with the same temperature.

In the meantime, I am working on my Napoleon Cake, I have extra Egg White Walnut Crisp cake and some maple syrup buttercream left. I will use them back to assemble my macarons into a macarons cake.

For the Egg white cake layer and buttercream recipe, please refer to my Napoleon cake blog page: http://winniemsfong.blogspot.com/2013/11/napoleon-birthday-cake.html

Cake assembly:

1. Pick out different size of macarons (Pic 18)
2. Cut out the cake size using a cookie cutter (Pic 19&20)
3. Spread buttercream on cake layer (Pic 21)
4. Place the largest macaron on the cake layer.(Pic 22)
5. Cut another cake using a small cookie cutter. Spread buttercream on both side of the cake layer. Then place another layer of macaron. (Pic 23)
6. Repeat these steps and place the smallest macaron on top.
7. Pipe buttercream around the outside of cake layer. Finished with any icing or fondant decoration you want.

I put on some fondant flowers and stars for further decoration.