Trick or Treat? Spiced pumpkin (shaped) macarons...

We don't really celebrate Halloween in Australia like the Americans do, but I was challenged by a couple of workmates to make some Halloween macarons for a bake sale this week to raise money for our work Christmas party.

The obvious choice was to make them into the shape of a pumpkin, but from the looks on some faces last week, pumpkin flavoured macarons were out of the question. I know - I could have made them Pumpkin Pie flavoured, but when was the last time you ate pumpkin pie in Australia?

So, to compromise, I used the flavours of pumpkin pie, minus the pumpkin - spiced white chocolate ganache with nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon and clove.

For the faces, I came across this great new gadget last week at my favourite cake decorating store - it's essentially a refillable paintbrush, but it's really easy to fill up, and I used it with some black food dye (saves heaps on buying those coloured edible pens!)

So for the shells, 

110g ground almonds

200g icing sugar
50g caster sugar
90g egg whites
yellow food colouring

red food colouring

Whisk egg whites to stiff peaks, gradually adding the caster sugar. 

Fold almonds and icing sugar into the eggwhites, "macaroning" until you achieve the correct consistency. I wasn't too bothered about getting the yellow and red food dye really well mixed in as I though it would add some interest to the "pumpkin" surface.

Pipe your macarons in an oval shape, and drag the top out to form the stem with a toothpick. Allow to rest until a skin forms. then bake for 15-18 minutes at 130 degrees celsius.

For the filling, heat 50g of cream and add 100g of white chocolate (allow to sit for a minute then mix in thoroughly). Add in cinnamon, ground ginger, nutmeg and cloves to taste.

Happy Halloween everyone!