Lolly Bag Tower - Macaron Recipes

Before I start this post, for those who are wondering, the very cool backdrop to this "photo shoot" and the venue for the baby shower was Alice Nivens Cafe in the Melbourne CBD - check it out for great coffee and amazing cakes!

As promised, here are the recipes for the macarons on the tower. To make the individual flavours of the "Lolly Bag" macaron tower, use the generic macaron shell recipe and then the corresponding ganache (I've listed them all below):

Generic Macaron Recipe

For the shells, follow this recipe and add whichever colouring suits the macaron you’re making (brown for freckle, yellow for banana, pink for musk, red for redskin, green for spearmint, orange for jaffa, etc).

110g ground almonds

200g icing sugar

50g caster sugar

90g egg whites

colouring of your choice

Whisk egg white to stiff peaks, gradually adding the caster sugar. Add colouring to achieve intensity you desire.

Fold almonds and icing sugar into the eggwhites, "macaroning" until you achieve the correct consistency.

Pipe rounds onto baking trays and leave until a skin forms (usually at least 30 mins, much longer if humidity is high).

Bake at 150 deg C for 12-13 mins, cool and remove from trays.

Redskin Ganache

50g cream

6 Redskin lollies

50g white chocolate

Heat cream and redskin lollies in a pan until lollies are melted and you have a runny pink liquid. Pour over the white chocolate and allow to stand until melted then mix until smooth. Allow to cool.

Freckle Ganache

50g cream

75g milk chocolate

hundreds and thousands (I just kept adding them until I was happy with the density)

Heat cream, pour over chocolate and allow to stand. Mix until smooth and add hundreds and thousands. Allow to cool.

Banana Ganache

50g cream

40g white chocolate

10 banana lollies

Heat cream and banana lollies until you have a runny yellow liquid. Pour over white chocolate and allow to stand. Mix until smooth and allow to cool.

Musk Ganache

50g cream

50g white chocolate

6 musk sticks (lollies)

Heat cream with musk sticks until melted. Pour over white chocolate and allow to stand. Mix until smooth and allow to cool.

Jaffa Ganache

50g cream

75g milk chocolate

Few drops of orange oil to taste

Heat cream, pour over chocolate and allow to stand. Mix until smooth, add orange oil and allow to cool.

Spearmint Ganache

50g cream

100g white chocolate

Peppermint oil to taste

Green food colouring

Heat cream, pour over chocolate and allow to stand. Mix until smooth and add peppermint oil to taste. Add a drop of green food colouring.