It’s no secret around here how much I love french macarons. A treat I first tried 8 years ago, that led to a long and at times bumpy baking journey. From cracked and hollow shells to missing feet, I’ve encountered nearly every macaron tragedy possible. But also gained a wealth of knowledge in the process. That knowledge has allowed me to create and share new recipes and creative macaron concepts that I hope you’ve enjoyed thus far! Whether a macaron cocktail, cake, stack, or even a cookie cutter, there are no limits to what can evolve from this delicate french cookie and I look forward to sharing more of what’s to come! Today’s macaron treat was made just in time for Halloween! A spooky macaron cake featuring four 5″ french macaron shells, dollops of delicious vanilla and black cocoa frosting and ghost meringue decorations.
HALLOWEEN MACARON CAKE
Four chewy 5″ macaron shells, topped with vanilla bean and rich black cocoa frosting. Stacked to form a petite 5″ macaron cake, then decorated with ghost meringues. Dairy/gluten-free.
MACARON CAKE FLAVOR
This spooky halloween french macaron cake is dangerously decadant tasting just like an OREO cookie! The OREO flavor comes from the combination of vanilla bean frosting and the rich black cocoa powder that gives the frosting a distinct cocoa taste with slight bite. It’s rich, creamy and also sweet, just like OREO cookies but even better, paired with chewy almond macaron shells!
THE COMPONENTS
This macaron cake has several components that make it so spooky delicious! From the dark grey shells, to the black and white frosting, ghost shaped meringues, gold accents and bat decor. All are explained in more detail below.
BLACK COCOA POWDER
Black cocoa powder is alkaline cocoa, generally used in baking for its color. Although used for the look it provides, the product gives bakes and frostings a flavor similar to OREO. A little bit goes a long way with this black cocoa powder! Be sure to check the link for the brand I’m using at the bottom of the post!
VEGAN VANILLA AND BLACK COCOA FROSTING
We have dairy allergies in our home, so when making frosting, I prefer to use organic shortening over butter. It’s sturdy and tasteless and makes a delicious frosting when paired with confectioners sugar and flavorings of choice. For this specific cake, I went with a simple vanilla bean frosting and black cocoa frosting. Both take just moments to whip up and are such a dreamy and divine addition to this halloween themed dessert!
GHOST MERINGUES
One of the funnest components of this spooky cake are the cute little ghost meringues adorned on the top macaron shell. The meringues are very simple to make and pipe requiring just 3 ingredients! They’re also easy to quickly decorate with edible markers. Baking the meringues takes 2 hours in the oven but they can easily be made days in advance of the macaron cake for easy assembly the day of.
HOW TO MAKE THE MACARON CAKE
Now that we’ve gone over all the components of this fun fall dessert, below are simple instructions for making a macaron cake of your own! The shells are essentially a larger version of 2″ macarons and will require a you to pipe each shell for a longer duration of time, using a simple counting method.
PIPING THE BATTER
When piping macaron batter for oversized shells, I find that using a count method works well. Be sure to keep even pressure on the piping bag at approximately 20-25 seconds of pipping per shell, so all the shells bake the same size. You could also print off a 5″ circle template and slide it under the silicone mat for exact sizing.
It takes longer for the large macarons to form a skin, so the resting time for large macarons increases. Be sure to watch the center of the macaron shells while resting- you might notice the outside edges are dry, but the center must also be dry before transferring to the oven.
Use leftover batter to pipe macaron shells, in 2″ size. Bake as directed in the recipe below.
ASSEMBLING THE MACARON CAKE
Once the macaron shells have cooled, begin assembling! Place the bottom shell on a cake stand, pipe dollops of vanilla and then black cocoa frosting along the outside edge of the shell, following this pattern until the entire top of the shell is covered.
Top with second macaron shell, then repeat with the vanilla and black cocoa frosting pattern.
Top with third shell and pipe the frosting.
Add the final shell, then decorate the top of the macaron “cake” with a few frosting stars, 2″ macarons and the ghost meringues. Transfer macaron cake to fridge for the maturation process.
MACARON MATURATION
Letting the macaron cake mature allows the frosting and/or filling to soak into the macaron shells for the ultimate flavor, crisp outside texture and chewy center. To mature, chill the macaron cake in the fridge for at least 2 and up to 24 hours before serving.
Reference the quick macaron assembly video below for inspiration.
Halloween Macaron Cake
- Prep Time: 45 minutes
- Cook Time: 4 hours
- Total Time: 4 hours 45 minutes
- Yield: 4 5" macaron shells + extra 2" shells 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: Macarons
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
Four chewy 5″ macaron shells, topped with vanilla bean and rich black cocoa frosting. Stacked to form a petite 5″ macaron cake, then decorated with ghost meringues. Spooky, sweet and dairy/gluten-free.
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup organic sugar
- 2.5 egg whites
- dash of cream of tartar for stabilizing
- dash of gf vanilla
- Edible black marker for drawing ghost eyes
- Pink edible paint or Wilton color mist for cheeks
- Large piping bag fitted with piping tip Wilton 12
- Parchment paper
- 106 grams of almond meal
- 106 grams powdered sugar
- 41 and 45 grams of egg whites divided
- 115 grams of granulated sugar
- 79 grams of water
- dash of cream of tartar or lemon juice for stabilizing
- black gel or powder food coloring
ADDITIONAL SUPPLIES:
- 1 piping bag fitted with Wilton round piping tip 12 for macaron batter.
- 2 piping bags fitted with coupler and no tip, for piping vanilla and black cocoa frosting
- Wilton gold color mist or edible gold paint (optional)
- Silicone mat
FOR THE VANILLA FROSTING:
- 1 cups organic shortening or vegan butter (you can also use regular or vegan butter)
- 1.5 cups confectioners sugar
- Seeds from half a vanilla bean
- Dash of gf vanilla.
- Pinch of sea salt
FOR THE BLACK COCOA FROSTING:
- 1 cups organic shortening or vegan butter (you can also use regular or vegan butter)
- 1.5 cups confectioners sugar
- 2.5 tbsp black cocoa powder
- Dash of gf vanilla.
- Pinch of sea salt
Instructions
FOR THE GHOST MERINGUES
- Start by making the ghost meringues. They can be done a few days in advance of making the macaron cake and stored in an airtight container. They take 2 hours in a low temp oven so make sure you’ve set aside the time to bake them.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment.
- Preheat oven to 375. Evenly spread sugar onto a parchment lined baking sheet and heat in the oven for 5 minutes.
- While sugar is heating in the oven, pour egg whites into the bowl of a stand mixer with whisk attachment.
- Beat on low until foamy.
- Pour in a dash of cream of tartar to stabilize, then gradually increase speed to medium high.
- Whisk the whites on medium high until the peaks begin to stiffen (soft peaks)
- Remove sugar from the oven when 5 minutes is up.
- With the mixer on medium high, slowly pour warm sugar into the whipped egg whites.
- Whisk egg whites, JUST until medium/stiff glossy peaks form.
- Be careful not to over-whisk the egg whites.
- You’ll know the meringue is ready when it holds its shape.
- Decrease oven temp to 200 degrees.
- Transfer finished meringue to piping bag.
- Gently squeeze a round dollop of meringue onto the parchment paper. While holding even pressure and piping the meringue, pull the tip up slightly then squeeze again to create the second dollop or ghost-like shape. Pipe 1-2 inch kisses onto parchment. To achieve the cute curl on the tops of the meringues, quickly pull the piping bag up from each cookie when done piping each.
- Bake in the oven for 2 full hours.
- Finished meringues should be crispy on the outside with a soft chewy center and should remove from parchment easily.
- Allow to cool and use edible markers to draw on the oval eyes. Dust the cheeks with pink, using a food grade paint brush, then store in an airtight container until ready to decorate the macaron cake!
FOR THE 5″ MACARONS
- Wipe down the mixing bowl and whisk attachment with vinegar to remove any built up residue. This will ensure that the egg whites whisk up properly.
- Prep and measure all of the ingredients using a kitchen scale.
- Prep a piping bag with a round tip. I use Wilton tip 12.
- Line 2 baking sheets with silpat.
- Combine measured almond meal & powdered sugar together in a bowl. Sift one time to remove any lumps, discarding of them, then mix almond flour and powder sugar together until evenly combined.
- Make a well in the center of the dry mix and pour the 41 grams of measured egg whites into the center of the dry mixture. Fold together until blended and paste like consistency, then add the black gel food coloring and mix well until fully incorporated and grey shell color is achieved. The finished mix will be paste-like. Set aside.
- For the sugar syrup:
- To make the sugar syrup, heat granulated sugar and water in a pot on medium heat with a candy thermometer attached to the side. **Be careful to make sure the thermometer is not touching the bottom of the pot**.
- Once the thermometer’s temperature reaches approximately 200 degrees F, place the 45 grams of measured egg whites in the stand mixer and whisk on medium speed, to soft peaks.
- Add a dash of cream of tartar to stabilize, THEN continue whisking.
- If the egg whites are at soft peaks before the syrup reaches 248 F, turn the mixer down to low speed to keep the egg whites moving.
- Watch the sugar syrup closely.
- As soon as the sugar syrup reaches 248 degrees F, remove from heat.
- Quickly increase mixer speed to medium and begin slowly pouring the sugar syrup down the side of the mixing bowl into the meringue until thoroughly combined.
- THEN increase the mixing speed to medium high and whisk sugar and meringue together until glossy and medium stiff peaks form and the meringue has cooled in temperature. (The meringue will be softer than a stiff french meringue and will be slightly curled over on the tip of the whisk.)
- Gently transfer finished meringue into the almond/powdered sugar mixture in thirds, making sure that it’s fully incorporated before adding the additional 3rd of meringue.
- Continue to fold the batter in a circular motion, going around the edges of the bowl, then once through the center. Repeat these steps until smooth and thick ribbons of batter run off the spatula.
- **Be careful not to over-mix**
- You want the batter to be slightly thick, but not so thin that it does not hold the ribbon shape. Err on the side of caution.
- Transfer batter to the prepped piping bag.
- Pipe four 5 inch rounds about 4 inches apart on two silpat lined baking sheets.
- Be sure to hold the piping bag about 1/2 inch directly above the baking sheet when piping the rounds. For this size of macaron, you can either use a 5 inch circle template to pipe the rounds of batter, or the count method. Counting to about 20-25 seconds for each 5″ round.
- I recommend piping two 5″ macaron shells per baking sheet.
- *Tap the macarons on the counter three times to release air bubbles.
- *Pop any air bubbles that might’ve come to the surface, using a scribe or even a toothpick.
- Before placing the macs in the oven, allow them to rest until a proper skin has formed on the full outside of the shell. This takes around 20-30 minutes. For the large shells I recommend 25-30 minutes total, depending on humidity. Test by touching the center of the piped macs with a clean finger. They should be dry to touch with no batter coming off on fingers.
- Preheat oven to 305 degrees F.
- Once dry to touch, place the macarons in the middle rack of the oven.
- Feet will form halfway through the baking process.
- You can open the oven after the first 13 minutes to test the shells. Wiggle gently from side to side to see if they need more time. A fully baked macaron should be sturdy when tested. I find that the large shells take close to 20 minutes to bake through.
- Once fully baked, remove from oven and allow 20+minutes to cool before attempting to remove the shells from the silpat.
- Once macarons are completely cool, gently remove from parchment paper/silpat.
- Repeat same steps to bake the remaining macaron batter. You can fill up a third baking sheet with smaller macaron shells.
- Once completely cooled, they’re ready to assemble
FOR THE VANILLA FROSTING
- Wash the mixing bowl, then mix shortening/butter, powdered sugar, vanilla bean, and vanilla in a stand mixer until incorporated.
- Transfer filling to piping bag with coupler.
- Set aside until ready to decorate.
FOR THE BLACK COCOA FROSTING
- Use the same mixing bowl to mix shortening/butter, powdered sugar, black cocoa powder, and vanilla in a stand mixer until incorporated.
- Transfer filling to piping bag with coupler.
- Set aside until ready to decorate.
MACARON CAKE ASSEMBLY:
- Place the bottom shell on a cake stand, pipe dollops of vanilla and then black cocoa frosting along the outside edge of the 5″ shell, following this pattern until the entire top of the shell is covered.
- Gently place second macaron shell right on top.
- Pipe dollops of vanilla and then black cocoa frosting along the outside edge of the 5″ shell, following this pattern until the entire top of the shell is covered.
- Gently place third macaron shell on top and repeat steps for frosting the third shell.
- Gently place fourth macaron shell on top.
- Pipe a few dollops of frosting on the top of the fourth shell, garnish with 2″ macarons, ghost meringues, edible gold and bat decorations.
- Cover and chill for at least 2 or up to 24 hours before serving.
- Carefully slice with a sharp knife when still chilled and serve on small canapé plates.
- Enjoy!
Keywords: french macarons, baking, dessert, macaron cake, halloween, meringues, ghosts, macaron instructions, halloween desserts, black cocoa frosting
An elegant and festive dessert idea for halloween season and your halloween themed parties!
Also a must for macaron and OREO cookie lovers, alike!
CUTTING THE MACARON CAKE
You might be wondering how to cut a macaron cake? I’ll admit they don’t slice as nicely as a regular cake. The shells although soft, have a tendency to crack on the top especially, but the edges can still be cleaned up to create unique and beautiful dessert slices. Start by cutting the macaron cake in half.
Point the knife into the center of the shell and then down through side of the cake to halve. Once in half you can cut into smaller individual slices, placing 2″ macarons or ghost meringues on top for a boo-tiful finishing touch!
Serve this modern macaron cake on canapés or dessert plates of choice and celebrate the holiday in sweet, chic and spooky fashion!
If you love oreo cookies, macarons and halloween, this cake is a must try! Always here to answer any questions you might have along the way! Bookmark and pin to share and visit the macaron section of the blog for more creative recipes!
Happy Halloween!
This post titled Halloween Macaron Cake was seen first on Posh Little Designs. All Rights Reserved. 2020
Let's chat!