Happy Birthday to you!
What do you get someone who doesn’t want anything for his birthday?
For those who have been following my posts (YES! I do have some regular readers – that is, Mom, Dad, husband, and occasionally one sister when I force her to), you will recall the nightmare I had with my two labradors of which I chronicled here. Well, they aren’t always that bad. Sometimes, they provide inspiration for the best ideas.
Let me tell you about it.
A few weeks ago I was down with the flu and I asked my husband to walk the dogs for me, which he did. Coming home around 30 minutes later, I asked him (as I always do) “how was the walk?” and he replied “there was an accident”. Take note, this was a few days after the infamous and expensive chocolate mousse incident! My heart dropped. I thought they must have gotten hurt or ate more chocolate. I asked him what happened.
He said, “go downstairs”. Oh no. I thought to myself. I rushed down to find the lounge area covered in flour. My dogs had decided to get a bag of flour on the kitchen counter (I know I should stop leaving food there and it has since been rectified) and have some fun. They took the bag from the kitchen and brought it to the lounge and decided it would look great on the rug.
Special thanks to Baci & Bizou for deciding on the birthday cake to make!
Now that I look back, it was a pretty funny sight but it wasn’t so funny that morning when I had to clean up the mess!
Anyway, that evening I told my husband, that I needed a new bag of flour because I was going to practice on a chocolate cake I had never made for his birthday (yes, a bit OC but I thought I should have one go at the cake before serving it on his birthday). He said “why don’t you just make a flourless chocolate cake”. Brilliant!
What a great idea. And then, I added my own twist and decided I was going to make it a macaron cake – they are flourless too!
Chocolate Mousse Macaron Cake
So here it is: The FLOURLESS Chocolate Mousse Macaron Birthday Cake inspired by those two crazy labradors. It is also the first of my Daring Bakers’ Challenge for October. My second post – lemon lime macarons can be found here.
The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe. Please do check out her website: Baking Without Fear.
Ingredients
- 125 grams almond meal
- 125 grams icing sugar (not icing mixture)
- 30 grams dutch processed cocoa powder
- 100 grams caster sugar
- 100 grams egg whites (from around 3 eggs)
Procedure
- Before you begin with the macs, find a 20 cm plate and draw the pattern on some baking paper.
- In a food processor grind the almond meal and icing sugar for around 5 minutes until very finely ground.
- Place the egg whites in an electric mixer and whip the whites until soft peaks
- Add the sugar, 50 grams at a time while the egg whites are being beaten.
- Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks.
- Fold the ground almond meal mixture into the egg white mixture in three additions until fully amalgamated.
- Pipe on to baking trays which have been lined with baking paper. Start from the center of the circle and go around until you end on the edge of the circle.
- Let the macarons dry for around 30 minutes until the “shells” are dry. Bake in a pre heated fan forced oven (150c) for 20 minutes.
Chocolate Mousse
- 80 grams caster sugar
- 5 egg yolks
- 200 grams dark coveture chocolate
- 300 ml cream
- Cocoa Powder for dusting
- Beat the egg yolks in a stand or electric mixer.
- In a sauce pan, heat 30 ml water and the caster sugar. Bring to a boil.
- Add the sugar syrup to the egg yolks in a steady stream. Whisk until the mixture is at room temperature and is light.
- Melt the chocolate in a microwave until melted and cool slightly until lukewarm
- Fold the chocolate into the egg mixture.
- In another bowl, whisk the cream until semi stiff peaks.
- Fold the cream into the chocolate/egg mixture.
- With a pastry bag, fill half a shell and cover with the other half
- Store in the refrigerator
- Dust with cocoa powder before serving.
To Dan: Wishing you a very happy birthday! Sorry I don’t have a gift for you except this macaron cake (even if I did buy you something I would probably use your credit card anyway!) … Love lots! Kiss kiss… Baci, Bizou and Trissa
Trissalicious 
[…] know, it’s crazy, especially with the number of times I’ve made them on my blog. Even at Pierre Herme or Laduree, my husband will order a […]
[…] the note to my husband and we both agreed my Dad was wrong. Sure, they have had their share of accidents, but we firmly believe that they are just adventurous explorers (also known as notorious […]
Everyone is so used to using flour in their cakes that no one knows how to make one that doesn’t use it that looks good, you really made it look good! Although in my opinion it looks more like a giant cookie? Anyway it looks delicious and I wish my dogs were as considerate as yours, the usual thing I find on my rugs is poop.
What an amazing idea!
Hi! Is it easy to cut the cake?
I LOVE the idea of the Macaron cake! I may have to attempt that one eventually, but first I’ll need to perfect my technique. I also had a good laugh about your dogs’ “accident.”
What a great looking cake. Happy Birthday Dan. Trissa I am so inspired by you and your drive to perfection. Love the pictures!
Haha you guys need your own tv show! And I have to say that they look like they’re smiling in the flour photo-like two naughty kids that are proud of what they’ve done!
(Belated) Happy birthday, Daniel!
You have some seriously mischievous doggies. I love the idea of a giant macaron cake! I’d just be terrified of breaking it before it got sandwiched.
omg Trissa.. You’ve really outdone yourself. I’ve been struggling with normal sized macarons, and here you are making a Jumbo one. Lucky Husband =D
That’s so cool! I wish I would have thought of that. Good job!
No way Trissa! That is so cool =D. I love your creativity! Not to mention talent, you’re getting really good at macarons if you can pull off a giant one!
I think it goes with the breed. My lab mix Bailey did the exact same thing with the flourlast month!!
Love the idea of a giant macaron! Well done on the challenge!
The yellow-green duo is simply gorgeous!!! love the idea..
as to your dogs.. they look soooo cute and adorable :)))))) I love dogs !
That’s brilliant! Even at the expense of flour all over your rug 😉 What a great idea, yum!
This is stunning, I didn’t get to participate in this challenge, but when I finally get around to making my own macaron, I think this is what I want to make. Maybe I will make it as my birthday cake? You have beautiful pictures by the way.
What a gorgeous idea!
Your giant macaron looks amazing
and I love the flavors’ combination!
must be the most fabulous idea i’ve seen so far in this challange.
wtg, Great job!
Inbal
(also a DB)
WOW!
What a great idea, a birthday cake – it’s look amazing!
Great pictures.
oh wow! gorgeous!! lucky husband and a very happy birthday to him! love the cake idea!
oh wow! gorgeous macaron!! lucky husband and a very happy birthday to him! love the cake idea!
Ha! what a great idea! One huge macaron!!!
what a unique take on this! great way to execute it trish! happy birthday to dan!
Seriously fantastic idea! Love it! I really must try making a giant macaron one day.
I adore the cake, love the pictures. I am jealous.
You should take a picture of Dan biting into the giant macaron. Happy birthday Dan!! Another great masterpiece!!
Goodness! A happy birthday to your hubby indeed! Did he pick it up with two hands and take a big bite out of it (because if it were me, I sure would be tempted to do just that!)
You’ve managed to get such lovely rise in the feet of the mac for such a large one too – well done! 🙂
yummy!!!!!!!!
Ooooh the Cookie Monster would go nuts over this amazing cake! Was it difficult to slice up? Or did Dan just pick it up like a big biscuit and eat the whole thing? 😉
haha aw- but your dogs are still adorable!
This giant macaron really takes the cake! You are certainly resourceful, not to mention creative, to come up with such a brilliant birthday idea. I hope you said ‘Good doggies’ to Baci and Bizou!
Great idea for an overly indulgent macaron! How creative.
HAHAHA I love that you got a photo of them red-handed, they both have that totally innocent “I didn’t do it!” look in their eyes 🙂 It’s totally awesome that you managed to make a cake sized macaron, that is just epic!
This was one of your funniest post. Happy birthday Dan. I hope you like your present even though Trissa used your credit card ehehhehe.
brilliant brilliant brilliant!
TRISSA you’re becoming one of my most favourite domestic goddesses!!! This is just brilliant and I bet it tasted really great!! To Dan: HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!
Love the picture of the two dogs don’t they look so innocent after the fact LOL LOL Your macaron birthday cake looks so yummy and I bet was a smash hit. And I like the smaller macarons in the background it must of been a great party. And the recipe looks very interesting also. Cheers Audax in Sydney.
Woah that’s one giant mofo Macaron!!!! I made the smallest and you went the other direction and baked the largest! LOL…
I just love the look of your dogs, they both saying “I didn’t do it! He did!” hahaha classic. 🙂
[…] Introducing: The Lemon Lime Macaron. My contribution to the Daring Bakers’ October Challenge… macarons. I think this was one of the most widely anticipated challenges. I had a lot of fun trying to come up with my own version. I also made a Chocolate Mousse Macaron Cake for my husband’s birthday and that can be found here. […]