Phew! I’ve just finished making my Solstice 2008 cake, and not a moment too soon. Sunset is in nine minutes and Another Outspoken Female has demanded that all entries in her baking meme be in by sunset! Of course, it helps if I check my calendar better… I’ve just realised I’m a day early for the deadline. Don’t you just hate it when you bust a gut prematurely?!
I’m not sure if my entry will be regarded as legit. It’s a slightly Parisian take on fruitcake, if you get my drift.
I present to you my Solstice 2008 Spiced Macaron Cake:
The base is a disc of macaron flavoured with clove and nutmeg and dotted with currants (the first time I’ve used such large inclusions in the batter.
On top there are small macarons in two shapes, and two flavours. Some are the same as the base, while others are cinnamon and orange rind.
And sticking this all together is a butter cream with ground almond, brown sugar, allspice, cinnamon, mixed glacé peel and rum (I had run out of brandy).
I hope this brings out all the characteristics of a pagan festival cake:) Happy belated Solstice everyone (it was, after all, on the 21st, not today).
Awww come on, where’s the dried fruit and the recipe?!
Dried fruit: currants in the base and some of the shapes on top. Macerated peel in the buttercream. I think that’s fair.
Recipe: well, macaron recipes are easy to find on this site, and I’ve described the flavourings I used. And the buttercream is made with butter and soft brown sugar, with about 1/3 of its weight in almond meal added.
Sounds both pagan and decadent to me. YUM
WOW!! And the disc is macarons as well? That is very big! How did you shape them as triangles like that?
What an unusual cake! So, what did it taste like? Like arfi, I’m curious to know how you shaped the small macarons on top and the biggie underneath! All I can think of is you must have one big pastry nozzle :p
So very creative and original! A very steady hand as well since those different shaped macarons look great!
Duncan…gosh…what a cake.
Very elegant indeed.
Thanks everyone:) At first it tasted less interesting than it looks, I must admit. But! It’s now Day3, and the flavours have blended somewhat — the result is rather nice, lightly spiced, just a little sweet.
The base was, indeed, a full disc. Of course, you can’t pipe this as a blob which spreads;) You have to pipe it as a spiral. The trail of batter then blends into one disc. Of course, it takes longer to cook, so it has to be done separately from other shapes.
You can pipe all sorts of shapes. Just use a smaller nozzle, depending on how much precision you want. In my case I used the same nozzle I use usually. It was an experiment which sort of worked.