Chocolate Macarons 2-Ways AND a Macaron Cake

I went on a macaroon-making binge. I made about 70 for an order. Then made more for a cake. Then made more for a party. I can't even tell you have many egg yolks I had in my fridge, but it was so worth it. Wanna see?

These macarons are filled with a rich chocolate ganache - my favorite!

I experimented with a few recipes. These puffy macarons were made with David Lebowitz's recipe, found here. They were tasty, reliable, and pretty easy to make, but I wanted a more shiny, classic-looking macaron.

Then I put the macarons on a cake. Why? Because I can.

By the way, this is a double chocolate cake filled with chocolate ganache and fresh raspberries, covered in more dark chocolate ganache.  You can stop drooling now.

 Yes, the cake is displayed on an upside down cookie sheet. I'm a college student, don't judge. The macaron recipe, by the way, is from here. The were pretty and yummy, but kinda finicky and I'm not totally in love with this recipe yet. I'll keep searching.

And another batch of chocolate macarons, David Lebowitz's recipe again. There's something to be said for consistency!

 These little gems were filled with a marshmallow fluff/chocolate ganache swirl.

 And then they were rolled in graham cracker crumbs.

Yes, s'mores macarons! Chocolate shells, fluff/ganache filling, and graham cracker crumbs. The only thing that would have made them better is to make the marshmallow filling from scratch and attack it with a blowtorch before sandwiching them to give it that campfire taste. These kept in the fridge for well over a week and they were so yummy. Very messy because the filling oozed all over until they had some fridge time to set, but it was worth it.

You'll definitely want to be licking the spoon for these. Want to know my favorite thing about macarons?

They're so easy to eat!

Peanut Butter Tarts

I made a cheesecake. Almond crust underneath lemon cheesecake, vanilla bean cheesecake, strawberry cheesecake all swirled together.  It was absolutely delicious, but it got sliced and eaten and smashed and digested before my camera got anywhere near it, so I don't have any pretty pictures to share.

Instead, here are some peanut butter tarts. I'm not exactly sure what was in each one because I just started plopping different fillings to crusts rather haphazardly, but I do know that there was a ton of chocolate and peanut butter happening. 

Chocolate peanut butter ganache. 

Peanut butter cheesecake swirl. 

Crunchy and sweet peanut butter filling.

Dark chocolate ganache. 

And a yummy shortbread crust. The crusts, by the way, were baked in a toaster oven. Because I'm a college student and that's just what we do.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Candy Cake

I swear, I really was planning on taking pictures of the inside of this cake. During the party I cut a nice slice and put it aside, promising myself that I'd take more pictures in the morning. Then my suitemates and I ate it. I'd apologize to you, but it was so tasty that I really don't feel all that badly about it.

The cake had 3 layers: chocolate, peanut butter, and chocolate peanut butter swirl.

Layered with chocolate peanut butter ganache (just add some peanut butter and extra cream to your favorite ganache recipe) and chocolate peanut butter cream cheese frosting.

As you can see, it's decorated in kit-kat bars, Hershey's kisses, and colorful m&m's. 

And tied off with a ribbon, because you know I can't resist. 

This lovely cake was made for a candy-loving friend's birthday.  

The decoration was incredibly fast and easy - took only about 20 minutes total!

This cake was incredibly rich - perfect with a glass of milk around a table with friends.

Strawberry Chocolate Marshmallow Tarts

Picture this:

Shortbread crust filled with smooth, sweet chocolate pastry cream

 Slathered in rich chocolate ganache.

Topped with strawberry marshmallow peaks.

And finished off generously with a blowtorch. 

And to top it all off, they're individually sized so you don't have to share.

Why yes, thank you, I'll take two.

I'm bored. Let's make lemon cake!

Once upon a time there was a girl named Maddie who didn't want to study on a Sunday afternoon. And that's how this pretty pink lemon cake happened. I'm proud to say that this cake is included in an article about me in my school's newspaper.

Top layer: lemon blueberry. Middle layer: lemon lemon. Bottom layer: lemon strawberry.

Each layer is filled with this incredible vanilla frosting and super tart lemon curd.

It's all decorated in pretty swirls of this cream cheese frosting.  That recipe isn't actually for a frosting - it's really a no-bake cheesecake - but it's delicious, so I'm not complaining.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to sit here and pretend that I didn't eat this cake for breakfast every day for a week.

Baked Alaska Cupcakes

When tasked with coming up with something delicious for a dinner party, I decided to make baked Alaska. I wasn't sure exactly what it was, but I was pretty sure it had something to do with meringue and ice cream, so that sounded good enough for me. I did some homework and decided to make the tasty treat in miniature.

Pretty little chocolate cupcakes hollowed out

Add in a scoop of strawberry ice cream (homemade, of course)

Pipe on the meringue and go crazy with the blowtorch. 

They were absolutely delicious and everyone loved them.

Although, in retrospect, serving them frozen solid right out of the freezer probably wasn't the best idea.

 I suppose I'll just have to make them again.

Mini Mint Cupcakes

At the supermarket around the holidays, this bag of Mint Truffle Hershey's Kisses just jumped into my cart. When I got home, I decided to make cupcakes with them to keep myself from eating them all.

I made a regular chocolate cake recipe and filled mini cupcake lines with the batter. 

The kisses were plopped on top and pressed ever so slightly.  

And I just baked them normally. The cupcake puffed up around them beautifully. 

Using a regular (and delicious) chocolate buttercream, I piped spikes on top and asked my sister to toss a few green jimmies and some white nonpareils on to make them even cuter.

Don't you love the carriers?

Each box was only about a dollar (and they're reusable!) and it did an excellent job protecting the cupcakes while I was on route to the delivery site. In fact, these pictures were taken after a bumpy car ride and even the peaks still look beautiful.