I’m thrilled to unveil this Horse Carousel Macaron Cake I made in collaboration with my favourite brand for silicone mats – Silpat. I have used Silpats since the very first few months of making macarons at home and I’ve always loved how they keep macaron shells round after piping.
This cake took several weeks to design since I needed to find the right materials and create proper sized macaron templates. It needed to yield shells that could be stably stacked on top of one another. This cake went to a height that I’ve never gone to in the past and I even had to build it a few times since certain configurations caused them to topple over. Now that I’m done, I am sharing the templates with you so you don’t have to figure out those technicalities yourself.
You can see that I’ve utilized several different shell sizes. Usually I pipe different sizes on different mats and bake them separately since smaller shells require less bake time. But for this project, my friends at Silpat came to the rescue with these toaster sized oven mats. It allowed me to put two mats side by side perfectly onto one tray. I put them in the oven at the same time but pull out the smaller set at 13 min. while the larger set baked for a further 12 min. I was elated since this saved a ton of time and I love how easy it is to wash the smaller mats. They don’t wriggle as much so won’t splash water all over the sink and they are easier to store as well. It’s also a great size for those who live in smaller spaces with only a small oven.
Here is the link to the mat: (disclosure:this is an affiliate link)
- Big Macaron cakes take longer to rest and bake. Read this post for more details on how to bake a big macaron cake.
- The upper big baby blue shell is slightly smaller than the bottom one in order for the lollipop to stick to the edge of the shell.
- The baby blue colour was achieved by using 2 drops of Sky Blue from Americolor and a little bit of Violet to step down the yellow color from the almonds. This will help achieve a “bluer” blue but still keep it a light blue.
- I used edible gold and silver metallic paint to decorate the horse candy lollipop.
- When applying the horse lollipop to the cake, put the stick inside the small ball of fondant and then apply the edible glue onto the edge of the big macaron shell. You will need to hold it for a while until it dries.
♥ INGREDIENTS & TOOLS ♥
♥ EXTRA TOOLS & SUPPLIES (besides ones needed for regular macaron making):
– Mint Candy
– Horse Mold
– Lollipop stick
– White Candy Melts
– Edible Gold & Silver Metallic Paint
– Paint brush for edible paint
– Piping tip Wilton 4B
– Tiny amount of fondant for holding the lollipop stick
♥ BABY BLUE CAKE BATTER INGREDIENTS FOR:
- 2 Big Macaron Shells of 3 1/2 inch in size
- 2 Big Macaron Shells of 4 1/2 inches in size
- Template is below
– 65 grams almond flour
– 65 grams icing sugar
– 45 grams castor sugar
– 50 grams aged egg whites
– 1/8 tsp cream of tartar
– Baby Blue Gel Colour (or 2 drops of Sky Blue from Americolor and a little bit of Violet)
♥ MINT GREEN CAKE BATTER INGREDIENTS FOR:
- 5 Big Macaron Shells of 3 inches in size
- Template is below
– 65 grams almond flour
– 65 grams icing sugar
– 45 grams castor sugar
– 50 grams aged egg whites
– 1/8 tsp cream of tartar
– Green Gel Colour (or half drop of Turquois from Americolor )
Use my Best French Macaron Recipe to bake mcaron shells
Use this tutorial for specific instructions on How to Bake BIG Macaron shells.
♥ SWISS BUTTERCREAM
– 65 gr egg whites
– 115 gr granulated sugar
– 170 gr butter at room temperature
– pinch of salt
– vanilla extract
Swiss Buttercream Instructions
- Bring a small pot of water to a boil.
- Place egg whites, salt and sugar into a heat proof bowl. Stainless steel is light and safe.
- Whisk the whites & sugar mix over the boiling water.
- Pay attention to whisking the mixture when it starts getting hot, you don’t want to cook the eggs.
- Whisk the mixture until the temperature reaches 160F. This temperature is generally accepted to be able to kill salmonella in eggs.
- Pour the mixture into the Kitchenaid mixer and whisk on low with the balloon whisk, then turn it up to medium.
- Once the mixture is stiff and the bottom of the bowl is cool to the touch, stop mixer. Change the whisk attachment to the paddle attachment.
- Add butter a little bit at a time while mixing with the paddle attachment at medium speed.
- Add vanilla extract
- The mixture might look curdled or separated for a while but keep mixing. It will all come together.
- Buttercream can be kept at room temperature until use within the same day.
Small Batch of Edible Glue for Applying the Horse Popsicle & Mint Candy
♥ 20 grams icing sugar
♥ 1 1/2 tsp. of meringue powder
♥ water in a spritzer bottle
Combine the dry ingredients in a glass bowl. Spritz the water onto the dry ingredients a little at a time and then blend everything together until you reach a thick consistency. If it’s too runny, add more sugar. A spritzer is great for controlling the amount of water you are adding at one time.
How to Make Horse Popsicles with Candy Melts
Please read instructions on the back of the package to melt your individual brand of candy melts.
You may find that candy melts actually work a bit better once it has cooled off a bit (I know.. counterintuitive) . Pour the melted candy into the horse mold then place the lollipop stick into the mold, spinning the stick a little bit. To speed up the firming process, you can place it in the fridge until set.
3 Inch Macaron Template – pipe 5 shells
3.5 Inch Macaron Template – pipe 2 shells
4.25 Inch Macaron Template – pipe 2 shells
Disclosure: Silpat sponsored review. All opinions are my own.
Shopping List for this Project
Disclosure: affiliate links
Products from Amazon.com
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Price: $7.29
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Price: $7.48
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Price: $7.85
GIVEAWAY!
The two winners for the SILPAT mat giveaway are Jalene Hutseal from Facebook and Shweta Gupta from Instagram. Thanks so much to everyone for entering! I appreciate you all for your constant support of my work. I love reading all your feedback and appreciate the shares of my work on social media. To thank you all, I’m giving away one more Bonus Prize of this Cute 10 Piece Baking Kit:
- heart cake pan
- 2 heart biscuit cutters
- 3 bear cutter – can be used to make “bear holding a nut” cookie
- bear fork and spoon set – perfect for photos
- decorative edge scraper for cake
- mini alphabet stamp set for fondant, gumpaste and cookies – awesome for making customized signature cookies
To enter, just leave a comment on my latest Instagram post that you want to be included and that’s it. And if you have a Pinterest account, pls. help me pin this carousel or any of my other work to your boards. Let me know if you do so I can thank you and come check out your boards too.
(I’ll choose one winner on October 10th, 2016. You must have a Canadian or US shipping address. By entering, you confirm you are 19+ years of age. Contest not affiliated with Instagram)
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Sandra Roberts says
OMG I tried this carousel for my Granddaughters birthday but I couldn’t find the horse old so I had to do it freehand on a mat using icing to build the form freezing it and pouring the chocolate into it, then I had to clean up the edges and pipe the details very tedious where did you get the mold? My Grandson wants the pops for his birtday
Mimi says
Hi Sandra,
Sorry for the delay, it took a while to find the details on this product. I’ve since provided a direct link to the horse mold for you inside this post. Hope it helps!
xoxo Mimi
Mary says
What kind of candy mints do you use for the carousel cake? They don’t look familiar to me.
Mimi says
Hmm… I don’t know… I picked them up at the grocery store and they were packaged in a sealed bag. if i happen to come across them again, I’ll let you know!
XOXO,
Mimi
Janis says
I tried your macarons recipe and it was a success!! I under-beat my first batch but it was ok. The 2nd batch, I don’t know what I did wrong but there were no feet! 🙁
Also, how long can I keep the macarons (filled and unfilled)? Thanks!!!
Mimi says
You can keep macarons for up to a week in the fridge. You can also keep them in the freezer for up to a month. Here is a guide I created for macaron troubleshooting. There is a section on macarons with no feet. Troubleshooting Guide
XOXO
Mimi