3 Macaron Flavours in One Day - Violet, Salted Caramel & Hubba Bubba Bubblegum

Tomorrow I'm driving down the coast with my 2 gorgeous girls to stay with my mum & dad  and visit our cousins for a week.  My mum often sees pictures of macarons on my blog but doesn't always get to taste them so I've been busy all day mixing, piping and baking 3 of our favourites and now have a huge container to give her.  

After my very cheeky entry in Mactweets whereby I made a Donna Hay packet mix, I also felt extremely guilty that I didn't go to a lot of effort so here we go guys I hope this makes up for it!  I still think macarons made from scratch rule compared to a packet mix and there's something satisfying about making everything yourself even though it takes forever!

I'll keep this post short as I should be in bed getting my beauty sleep but I ended up making Salted Caramel (again), Violet and Hubba Bubba Bubblegum.  Salted Caramel and Violet to go with some bubbly for the adults and bubblegum and soft drinks for the kids.  Looking forward to some Brown Brothers Cienna Rosso and Zibibbo Rosa!

unfilled shells

a bit of gold bling on the salted caramel

I think my ruffles need a bit of practice

Hubba Bubba Bubblegum

UPDATE: To make these macarons follow my basic recipe and colour them pink, purple or caramel depending on what flavour you decide to make.  

You can find the recipe for Salted Caramel Filling here and for the Violet Ganache here. To make the bubblegum ganache follow Zumbo's bubblegum ganache recipe but replace the strawberry puree with pouring cream (minimum 35% fat) and use 6 pieces of Hubba Bubba instead of four.  All other ingredients remain the same.  No need to make the pop rock insert for this one.  

BTW, thanks to everyone that left comments and apologies for my belated response.  

Donna Hay Almond Macaron with Chocolate Filling

I was walking through the aisles in the supermarket the other day and something that I hadn't noticed before in the baking section caught my eye - Donna Hay's Macaron Mix. Now, I'm not normally one for packet mixes but since it was the last one left on the shelf I thought that it  must be pretty good so into my trolley it went.  I know that some bakeries also use powdered macaron mixes so a bit like Alice I was somewhat curious and curiouser to see what all the fuss was about. Could I make magnificent macarons or would they be a total disaster?  Not content with following the instructions I took the chance to add my own little twist and I was prepared for failure. I followed most of Donna's instructions on the box but added 1 tablespoon of freeze dried raspberries to the almond mix and a squirt of rose pink food colouring to the egg mix.  I also added a bit of pink bling to the shells before placing them in the oven.  To the ganache, I added 1 teaspoon of Demerara sugar and squirted in a couple of drops of rose essence.  This could go really pear shaped I thought but here's what happened.

Donna's magic mixes

Preparing the egg mix

All whipped up 

Waving my magic wand 

I just can't resist and have to pipe these little darlings - I can't plop them on with a teaspoon despite the box telling me so

Pretty little feet dancing in the oven

Preparing the ganache

Pink Raspberry & Rose Macarons - can you believe these are from a packet mix?

You've been a very bad, bad girl ladymacaron!  Instead of going to all the trouble to make macarons from scratch you've cheated for this Mactweets entry and made a packet mix!  And, if that wasn't bad enough it took you half the time to make up a normal batch - shame on you!  Well, girls I've decided that if you've got friends coming over at the last minute and you desperately want macarons then you need one of these little boxes hidden inside your cupboard.  You can whip up some gorgeous macarons at a whim and still look like the beauty queen that you are.  Next time however,  I'd cook the macarons at a lower temperature 135 to 140 degrees Celsius (fan-forced) for approx. 17 - 19 minutes and use a white chocolate ganache as I find the dark chocolate in macarons a bit too rich.  This packet mix has the thumbs up from me...  sorry for cheating, I promise I'll make macarons from scratch next time!