Brigadeiro Macaron Cake

Hello friends! Today I am showing you how to make a Brigadeiro Macaron Cake, filled with actual cake and also brigadeiro! I made this for my sister’s birthday a few weeks ago, she loves brigadeiro, and so do I.

Brigadeiro is wonderful because it is shelf stable for a couple of days, so this cake doesn’t even need refrigeration if staying in a cool place (ie, not under the direct sunlight obviously).

Plus, brigadeiro is one of the most delicious things in the world. Brigadeiro is essentially a fudge made out of sweetened condensed milk, butter, and flavoring (chocolate in today’s case).

Make sure to watch the video on this page or on YouTube to see how to make this recipe.

I topped the cake with actual brigadeiros (the truffle balls) and macarons filled with brigadeiro.

To see my entire brigadeiro guide click here.

I teach all about how to make brigadeiro, all the best tips, and more!

As I was saying above, brigadeiro is wonderful for many reasons, one being that it doesn’t require refrigeration for a couple of days, and it also holds pretty well in hot weather, so that makes it super easy to transport this cake to places, and also to display it at a birthday party for example.

I got the idea of filling the Brigadeiro Macaron Cake with actual cake in the middle from my friend Nicole at Bake Toujours (if you’ve been here for a while you see me mentioning her a lot, because she is a phenomenal macaron teacher in our community and always inspiring me).

I’ve filled macarons with cake before, but never a macaron cake.

You can see my previous macaron cakes here:

• Caramel Macaron Cake
• Pumpkin Macaron Cake
• Coffee Macaron Cake
• Giant Vanilla Bean Macaron

I absolutely love making them!

You will need a template for this cake to be able to pipe the large shells.

I have used a 4″ for this one, you can use a 4.5″ if you’d like a larger cake as well I will include both templates below.

When I made the brigadeiro for the filling, I went ahead and made a double batch, it’s just never a bad idea to make a double batch of brigadeiro.

First because it’s delicious, and there’s no such thing as brigadeiro leftovers. Brigadeiro can stay in the freezer for months, and it won’t even harden up.

Second, because you can roll some into truffle balls, dredge in sprinkles, and use to top the cake.

Third, because you can just eat it all up with a spoon, and trust me you will want to do that.

I also had a bit of leftover macaron batter, which is why I made some tiny macarons to put on top as well.

You should check my brigadeiro macaron recipe here. Brigadeiro is an amazing filling for macarons, and you can make it all sorts of different flavors, like coconut, key lime, and the possibilities are endless.

Brigadeiro Macaron Cake

Camila Hurst

Today I will show you how to make a beautiful and delicious Brigadeiro Macaron Cake filled with chocolate cake and brigadeiro.

5 from 2 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 2 hours hrs

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Total Time 2 hours hrs 30 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 5 servings

Calories 90 kcal

Ingredients

  

Chocolate Macaron Shells

• 100 grams egg whites
• 100 grams white granulated sugar
• 105 grams almond flour
• 75 grams powdered sugar
• 14 grams cocoa powder

Chocolate Cake

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 183 grams
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 39 grams
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp fine sea salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter room temperature 113 grams
• 1 cups sugar 200 grams
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup milk 157 ml
• 2/3 cup hot brewed coffee read notes* 157 ml

Brigadeiro

• 2- 14 oz. Sweetened Condensed Milk 792 grams
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips* or chopped chocolate or chocolate powder
• 2 tbsp butter plus more for rolling
• 1/3 cup sprinkles

Instructions

 

Chocolate Macaron Shells

• Before you start, get all of the ingredients ready. Prepare a large piping bag, fitted with a large round tip, I use a 1/2” diameter tip. Set aside.
• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone mat. Place the template with the large circles underneath it. My circles were 4.5”, and I was able to obtain 4 circles.
• Measure out all of the ingredients.
• Sift the powdered sugar, almond flour, and cocoa powder together. Set it aside.
• Place the sugar and the egg whites in a bowl, over a pan with barely simmering water. Whisk until the sugar is completely melted. It will take a couple of minutes. You can test by touching the mixture between your fingers, and if you feel any sugar granules just keep whisking the mixture over the water bath.
• Make sure the bottom of the bowl isn’t touching the simmering water because you don’t want the whites to cook. Also, don’t overheat the sugar syrup just whisk over the double boiler until the sugar has melted.
• Transfer the syrup to the bowl of a stand mixer.
• With the whisk attachment, start whisking mixture on low for about 30 seconds, then gradually start increasing speed to medium. Whisk on medium for one to two minutes, until the mixture is white and starting to become fluffy. Raise the speed to high, or medium-high and whisk for a few minutes until stiff peaks are formed. Best way to check this is to keep your eye on the whites. Once they get glossy and you start seeing streaks formed by the whisk, it might be time to stop.
• Whisk until stiff peaks have formed. When you pull your whip up, the peak should be stiff and shooting straight up, with possibly a slight bend at the top, but not bending down to the side.
• Pour the sifted powdered sugar, almond flour, and cocoa powder into the stiff meringue.
• Start folding gently forming a letter J with a spatula.
• Add the food coloring at this point, if using any.
• How to know when to stop folding the batter: It’s time to stop folding when the batter is glossy and has a thick and flowing consistency. There are several ways to test this.
• First, pick up some batter with the spatula and try to draw a figure 8 with the batter that is dripping off the spatula. If you can form several 8 figures without the batter breaking up, that’s one indication that it might be ready.
• There’s another test you can do. I call it the Teaspoon test. Grab a teaspoon of batter and spoon onto the parchment paper or silicon mat. Wait a minute to see how it behaves.If the batter stays stiff, forming a point and doesn’t spread out, fold a little bit more, about 3 folds.
• Test again.
• Once the batter spreads out a bit and starts to look glossy and smooth on top, on the parchment paper, it’s ready.
• You don’t want your batter to be too runny either. So be careful not to over mix. It’s always best to under mix and test several times until the proper consistency has been achieved.
• When you hold the spatula with batter on top of the bowl and the batter falls off the spatula slowly but effortlessly the batter is ready. The batter will keep flowing off the spatula non-stop, but not too quickly.
• Transfer the batter to the piping bag.
• Place the piping bag directly 90 degrees over the center of a circle template. Apply gentle pressure and carefully pipe while keeping the bag in that vertical position. I piped each macaron about 3”, because they spread out considerably after piping, and then they reached a 4” diameter after I banged the tray against the counter.
• I had a tiny bit of batter left, enough for a few small macarons. I piped the small macarons on another tray, and also let them dry and baked them afterwards.
• Once you’ve piped the circles, bang the tray against the counter a few times.
• Use a toothpick to pop any air bubbles in the surface of the shells. Let the trays sit for a while so the shells will dry out. I had to leave mine for almost 1 hour, time resting and drying will depend on how humid the day is, on the consistency of the batter, and other factors such as added food coloring, etc. You’ll know they’re ready when you gently touch the surface of a macaron and it seems dry. With the larger macarons it’s harder to tell, because they may form a thin dry surface but still not be dry enough to be baked. If your fingers are sinking in too much, or if the batter still feels quite wet and soft, even if it’s not sticking to your finger, let it rest a bit longer.
• Pre-heat the oven to 310ºF.
• Bake one tray at a time.
• Bake for 10 minutes, rotate the tray.
• Then continue to bake for another 15 to 20 minutes. When baked, the macarons will have a deeper color and formed feet. If you try to move a macaron, it shouldn’t feel jiggly. If the macaron is still jiggly, keep baking.
• Let the macarons cool down before proceeding with the filling.

Chocolate Cake

• Pre-heat oven to 350Fº.
• Spray oil on the bottom of a 9×15″ jelly roll pan and line it with parchment paper.
• Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and espresso powder, if using it instead of the coffee. Set aside.
• Beat the butter at medium-high speed for 1 minute.
• Add sugar slowly, beat for another 2 minutes.
• Add eggs to the mixture, one at a time, scraping the bowl in between and making sure the first egg is incorporated before adding the second one.
• Add vanilla extract and mix.
• Slowly add milk, mix to combine.
• Pour dry ingredients over wet mixture.
• Fold with a spatula slowly, until ingredients are just combined.
• If you see big clumps of cocoa powder, you can use the whisk to try to gently smooth the batter out.
• Once batter is incorporated, pour hot coffee in the bowl. Whisk until combined.
• Pour the batter onto the baking pan.
• Bake in pre-heated oven for 20 to 30 minutes. Start checking at around the 20 minute mark.
• Once you remove it from the oven, let it cool down.

Brigadeiros

• I am making a double batch so I can roll some into brigadeiro truffles. You can get away with making a single batch (divide all ingredients by two) if you don’t want to roll some into truffles.
• Add the condensed milk, chocolate chips, and butter to a pan with a heavy bottom, and start cooking over medium heat, stirring with a spatula.
• The chocolate will start to melt, and the mixture will start to get fudgy and thick. Dont stop stirring at any point, or the brigadeiro will stick to the bottom of the pan and burn.
• Cook until the brigadeiro is thick, falling into chunks off the spatula, and when you run the spatula through the middle, you can see the bottom of the pan.
• It should take about 20 minutes to cook a double batch, it takes less to cook a single batch. If you over cook it, it might become too hard to pipe.
• Remove from the heat and pour into a bowl, then let it cool down completely at room temperature.
• If you put it in the fridge, it will get too hard to pipe, so I don’t recommend doing that.
• Once the brigadeiro is at room temperature, put it in a piping bag fitted with the tip of choice, I am using a tip 1M.

Fill the small macarons with brigadeiro

• Pipe some brigadeiro between the shells and then top with another mini shell.

Roll the brigadeiros

• To roll the brigadeiros, grease your hands with some butter so they don’t stick.
• Use a spoon to grab some brigadeiro and then roll between your hands, and dredge each ball into sprinkles. The brigadeiros can be cold from the fridge to be rolled into balls, I just don't recommend them being cold before piping them in the macaron shells.

Cut the cake

• Use a round cutter to cut pieces of cake to place in the center of the filling.
• If the cake is too thick, feel free to slice it in half lengthwise.

To assemble

• To assemble the cake, place a macaron shell on a cake plate.
• Then place a slice of cake in the center, and pipe the brigadeiro around.
• Then put another shell on top and repeat.
• Let the macaron cake mature for 24 to 48 hours before serving.

Storage

• Store the macaron cake in the fridge, in an air tight container for up to 5 days, and in the freezer for about 1 month.

Notes

Scale: Please use a scale when measuring the ingredients for accuracy.

Macaron amount: it will vary greatly depending on how big you pipe the shells, and on how runny or thick the batter is.

Baking time/temperature: Baking time and temperature will vary according to your own oven. I recommend experimenting with your oven to find out the best time, temperature, position of the baking tray.

Oven thermometer: Make sure to have an oven thermometer to bake macarons. It’s one of the most important things about making macarons. Home ovens aren’t accurate at all at telling the temperature, and even a slight 5 degree difference can make or break your whole batch.

Tray rotation: Lots of bakers don’t have to rotate the trays 180 degrees in the oven, but I do have to with my oven, or I will get lopsided macarons. Please adjust this according to your oven.

Chocolate cake: Always feel free to substitute the hot coffee for hot water. You could also add 1 teaspoon of espresso powder to the dry ingredients if that’s the case, or simply go without and use just the hot water. I have made this cake many times without coffee, using water instead, and it turned out fine. The coffee is simply used to enhance the chocolate flavor and richness, but not completely mandatory.

Keyword brigadeiro, macarons