Saturday 15 September 2012

Le Macaron Tower - C'est Magnifique !



Righto - first off you must excuse my dreadful high school French in the title...hahahaha.


I know I have kind of disappeared off the planet for a few weeks but life sometimes just steps in and has other plans for you doesn't it.  Ive been busy in the cake world making both the macaron tower and the Speedo Swimming Man.  I also have another cake in the midst of completion right now in the form of a 'Give Way' Sign...

OK well first things first. We lived through the trial and error of making macarons using the French Method NOT the Italian Meringue Method and have made peace with it and found a groove with it somewhat with many more successes than failures.

With the macarons all made, I researched how best to construct the tower and there were two options for securing the macarons to the cone - you could either mount them to the sides by sticking them on with ganache or you could mount them on toothpicks inserted into the foam inner of the cone.

I opted for the toothpick version as I wanted the birthday girl and her friends to be able to pluck the macarons easily from the tower without the delicate shells cracking or breaking where they were adhered with chocolate.

I filled all the macarons the day before delivery and fortunately as it turned out I had made just enough. I used a small knife to pierce the board covering the foam cone then inserted each toothpick on roughly a 45 degree angle and then skewered each macaron in place.  I carefully worked my way around the cone using the turntable definitely helped with manipulating it smoothly.

The base was a thick polystyrene slab covered for the job in a classic design.  Upon completion of the last layer I was wondering how best to tie in the birthday girl's name etc and my Husband had the brainwave of the beautiful place card in front.  Elegant and in keeping with the design and feel of the creation.

My only caveat with this job was that it was insanely difficult to move by car.  I made my husband drive at approx 40km/h all the way to the delivery destination (fortunately no motorways were required!)  Every little bump or jolt in the car had me holding my breath as I held tightly to the base and the top of the cone.  A couple of the bottom Macarons slipped off but were easily slid back on when we arrived.

I am thrilled with the result it was absolutely perfect.  The birthday girl adored it and they started eating with gusto.

Flavours from bottom to top were:
Lemon, Lavender, Raspberry, Coffee, Mint, Blueberry, Strawberry, Coffee, Mint, Raspberry, Mint.

Lxx