The Baking Biatch || by Cynthia Lim: Tigger Macarons with Strawberry Buttercream

With the success of my Strawberry Macarons on Saturday, I decided to challenge myself with something of greater complexity. I've been seeing photos of very adorable macarons and decided to make some Tigger ones among many other adorable ones cos' the hubby loves Tigger. These were A LOT of work, I wouldn't deny that. But they're a lot of adorableness too (you get what I mean!).

So yes, they were worth every bit of the effort and fun I had in the kitchen so I'm glad to share this recipe with you (:

I took about 3.5 - 4 hours for this batch of about 12 tiggers and a couple of extra shells. I'd rate it a difficulty level 5 out of 5. As always, if you want to be successful in these macarons, follow the steps to a T. Macarons are just tricky things to master and every small difference makes a whole lot of difference.

Tigger Macarons with Strawberry Buttercream

This recipe yields about 12 - 14 tigger macarons

110g fine ground almond

200g icing sugar

100g egg whites (about 3 eggs)

35g castor sugar

wilton gel food colouring in orange, no-taste red and yellow (though orange alone may work)

57g unsalted butter, room temperature

90g icing sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste

1 tbsp strawberry jam

190g icing sugar

1 egg white

1/8 tsp cream of tartar

some water

Wilton gel food colouring in no-taste red and black

Method

Sift icing sugar and almond. If it is too coarse, use a food processor to blitz it.. I did mine twice as it was too coarse.

Sifted mixture

In a clean and empty mixing bowl, whisk the egg whites till it's frothy. Add in castor sugar gradually and mix till soft peaks are formed. Add in some gel food colouring (I used orange, no-taste red and yellow). Whisk whites till stiff peaks are formed.

Pretty stiff peaks!

Add icing sugar and almond mixture into egg whites. Fold in (NEVER STIR) about 40 - 50 times or till the batter can fall off nicely in a V off the spatula. There should not be any lumps in the batter. Do not over mix the batter.

Spoon batter into a piping bag. Snip off the tip of the bag. Alternatively, use piping tip #12 (round) to pipe the batter onto the baking sheet. I used silicon baking paper.

On a towel/cloth, knock the baking tray to release air bubbles. Use a toothpick to poke the bubbles if need be. Allow the macarons to dry. You may speed up the process with the oven drying tips from this recipe. I left them in front of a fan for half an hour.

When the macrons are dry to the touch, preheat oven to top&bottom heat, 150 degree Celsius.

Bake for 15 minutes. Feet should form between to the 5 - 10th minute. Remove macarons from oven and allow it to cool completely before removing it. If the macarons are stuck to the silicon paper, return to oven and bake for another 1 - 2 minutes (depending on how sticky the macarons are) and repeat cooling process. Do not overcrowd your oven. I had 2 trays of macarons but I baked a tray at a time.

I love the pretty feet!

While macarons are cooling, sift icing sugar for royal icing

In a mixer, mix icing sugar, cream of tartar and egg white till it comes together.

It will be thick and pasty. Add in water, a drop or two at a time to get desired consistency. Generally, for piping outlines, you'd want a thicker royal icing and for filling outlines, you'd want a thinner royal icing. Add water to thin out royal icing and add more sifted icing sugar if you wish to thicken it. The portion of royal icing in this recipe is more than enough for all the components.

Outline the features of Tigger. Fill in with thinner royal icing.

I should have outlined the snout... totally underestimated the fluidity of the royal icing (such a waste!).. Add colouring/icing sugar where required to fill in the eyes/brows/whiskers.

More whiskers! Oh yes, do wait for the backing of the eye to dry up (most of it) before piping the eyes.

Colour some royal icing with no-taste red for the pink nose.

Prepare buttercream according to this recipe. I only used 1/2 the portion as there were fewer macarons and I didn't want too much buttercream in the macarons. Put the macarons together and allow buttercream to become a little firmer in the refrigerator.