Hello friends, let’s make these Cruella De Vil themed macarons. They are filled with red velvet cake, and the roses are piped with buttercream.
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword macarons
Prep Time 4 hourshours
Cook Time 55 minutesminutes
Total Time 4 hourshours55 minutesminutes
Servings 20macarons
Calories 120kcal
Author Camila Hurst
Ingredients
Macaron Shells
100gramsegg whites
100gramswhite granulated sugar
105gramsalmond flour
105gramspowdered sugar
Food coloringfor the white batter I used white powder food coloring by the Sugar Art, and for the black batter I used black powder by the Sugar Art and also black gel food coloring by Americolor
Red Velvet Cake
1/4cupunsalted butter room temperature56 grams
1/4cupvegetable oil
3/4cupgranulated sugar150 grams
1large egg
1tspvanilla extract
14gramsred gel food coloring1 tbsp
1 1/3cupall-purpose flour167 grams
2tbspcocoa powder15 grams
1/2tspbaking soda
1/4tspsalt
2/3cupbuttermilk156 ml*
Buttercream
1 1/2cupunsalted butter339 grams
4 to 5cupspowdered sugar500 to 625 grams*
2-4tbspmilkif needed
1/2tspvanilla extract
Instructions
Macaron Shells
Before you start, get all of the ingredients ready. Prepare a large piping bag, fitted with a round tip, I use a 1/4” diameter tip. Also line another piping bag fitted with a Wilton #1 piping tip, one of the smallest round tips there are. Set aside.
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mat.
I use a baking mat with the macaron template already in it.
Measure out all of the ingredients.
Sift the powdered sugar and almond flour together. Set it aside.
Place a bowl over a pan with barely simmering water. Add the sugar and egg white powder to the bowl if using. If you’re not using egg white powder simply skip it.
Whisk the sugar and egg white powder so it doesn’t clump up.
Add the egg whites to the bowl and 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, this may cause issues down the line, such as wrinkly macarons.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 medium or medium-high and whip for a few minutes until stiff peaks are formed.
To know if the meringue is done whipping , keep your eye on the whites. Once they get glossy and you start seeing streaks formed by the whisk, and the meringue raising in the center of 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 curve at the top, but not bending down to the side.
Pour the sifted powdered sugar and almond flour into the stiff meringue.
Start folding gently forming a letter J with a spatula.
Fold the dry ingredients with the meringue just until you see no more dry ingredients in the meringue.
As soon as you see no more dry ingredients in the meringue, stop stirring. Divide the batter between two different bowls. You will need more white batter than black, so have that in mind. You could probably do 1/4 of the batter black and the rest white, but I didn’t measure mine I just eyeballed it.
Work with one bowl at a time, leaving the other bowl covered meanwhile.
To the first batter add white powder food coloring and stir until the perfect consistency is achieved. The batter should be flowing slowly and effortlessly off the spatula, you should be able to pick up some batter with the spatula and draw several figure 8s with the batter that’s flowing, without having the batter break up. And even after the batter breaks up, it should still continue to flow off the spatula slowly.
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.
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.
Once the batter spreads out a bit and starts to look glossy and smooth on top, on the parchment paper, it’s ready.
Transfer the white batter to the piping bag fitted with the large round tip.
Now let’s work with the other batter. Add a bit of black powder food coloring as well as gel food coloring to the batter. I am not sure how much I’ve added, I just kept adding until the color was deep enough.
Be careful at this point not to over mix the batter, because often times people will continue to add color in order to obtain a more vibrant tone, and will end up over mixing the batter in the attempt to obtain the desired color.
Fold the batter until the perfect consistency is achieved. Like I’ve mentioned before, the batter should be flowing off the spatula slowly and effortlessly, and should be able to form a few figures 8s with the batter that’s flowing off the spatula without having it break up, and even after it breaks up, it should still continue to flow off the spatula slowly and effortlessly.
Transfer the black batter to the piping bag fitted with the number 1 piping tip, or with the smallest piping tip you have.
Place the piping bag containing the white batter directly 90 degrees over the center of each macaron template. Apply gentle pressure and carefully pipe for about 3 seconds, and then quickly pull the bag up twisting slightly.
Once you’ve piped as many circles as you could, pipe small spots with the black batter on the surface of the shells, to form the Dalmatian pattern. Make the spots small, or you’ll end up with a cow pattern, I’m speaking from experience here.
Bang the trays against the counter or against the palm of your hands a few times to release any air bubbles.
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 a little bit. I usually leave about 20-40 minutes, depending on how humid the day is. You’ll know they’re ready when you gently touch the surface of a macaron and it seems dry.
Pre-heat the oven to 310ºF.
Bake one tray at a time.
Bake for 5 minutes, rotate the tray.
I bake each tray for about 15 to 20 minutes.
You can place a piece of foil over the macarons to prevent the white part from browning too much.
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.
Remove from the oven and bake the other tray.
Let the macarons cool down before proceeding with the filling.
Red Velvet Cake
Pre-heat the oven to 350ºF. Grease and line a jelly roll pan (10×15”-read the notes for substitution) with parchment paper, then grease the parchment as well. Or simply butter and flour the pan. Set aside.
Cream the butter, oil, and granulated sugar in a bowl with an electric mixer for 2 minutes, until fluffy and lightened in color.
Add the egg and mix to combine.
Add the vanilla extract and the red gel food coloring, and mix until incorporated.
In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt together, and let’s add it to the batter in thirds, alternating with the buttermilk.
Add 1/3 of the dry mixture to the batter. Mix until incorporated.
Add 1/3 cup of buttermilk to the bowl. Mix until combined.
Now add another 1/3 of the dry mixture to the batter.
Mix, and then add the remaining 1/3 cup of buttermilk.
Finally, finish with another addition of flour. Mix until incorporated.
Pour the batter onto the prepared baking pan.
Bake in the pre-heated oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the cake.
Remove and let it cool completely.
Buttercream
Beat the butter with an electric mixer at medium speed until smooth, for a couple of minutes. Add the powdered sugar and I also added a bit of red powder food coloring at this point to help achieve a vibrant color. Mix on low until incorporated. Raise the speed to medium high and beat for another minute.
I also added a bit of red gel food coloring to deepen the color.
Add the vanilla and mix to combine.
Transfer the buttercream to a piping bag fitted with a petal tip number 101.
Don’t put all the buttercream in the piping bag at once, because you will be handling the piping bag for a while and that can make the buttercream get warm and soften up. Leave the remaining buttercream covered.
To pipe the roses
I like to use a flower nail to do this. Also cut small squares of parchment paper.
Pipe a tiny dollop of frosting on the flower nail and glue the paper on top.
Place the piping tip perpendicular to the paper, with the larger part of the tip on the bottom, and the thinner part on top.
Make a cone as you spin the flower nail, and apply pressure to release buttercream.
Then start piping the petals around by going up and down with the piping bag as you rotate the nail. It’s very helpful to watch the video and see how this is done. You only need a few petals, because the rose can’t be too big for the macarons.
Place each paper with the piped rose on a baking sheet and then place the baking sheet in the freezer.
Let the roses sit in there until completely solid. Don’t leave them out for too long or they will start to get soft and will be hard to handle.
To assemble the macarons
Use a piping tip or small round cutter to cut circles of cake. Place a cake round on a bottom macaron shell.
Using a small round piping tip pipe some buttercream around the cake circle. Then attach the roses straight from the freezer. Be quick when doing this because the roses may start to get soft and melt very quickly.
Pipe more buttercream on top of the cake, and then place another shell on top.
Place in the refrigerator immediately.
Storage
These macarons can be stored in the fridge for 5 to 7 days, or in the freezer for up to 1 month or so.
Notes
Egg white powder: Egg white powder is made of only egg whites. They help with getting fuller shells, and specially when adding a lot of food coloring to the batter, because they make the shells dry faster. I recommend experimenting with it if you can find it. I use 4 grams for each 100 grams of egg whites. Egg white powder is not necessarily right for everybody, find out more about it here.Food coloring: For the white batter I used white powder food coloring by the Sugar Art, and for the black batter I used black powder by the Sugar Art and also black gel food coloring by AmericolorScale: 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 every 5 minutes, but I do have to with my oven, or I will get lopsided macarons. Please adjust this according to your oven.Buttercream: this is a large quantity of buttercream because I realized I used a lot of buttercream to make the flowers, specially in the beginning, when I was getting the hang of the flowers. If you have any leftover, it will last in the fridge for up to a couple of weeks, and in the freezer for a couple of months.Buttermilk: I didn’t have any buttermilk this time, so I just added 1 tsp of vinegar to regular whole milk and let it sit for a minute, then used it in the recipe.Rose design inspired by the so talented: ayseyamanbutikpasta on Instagram