Lemon Macarons

I had an order last week for lemon macarons. My mind immediately went to those nasty little bastards that I call my second try at macarons. Not cool. I made a promise to the lemon gods that I'd do better this time.

Since I've all but sworn off the italian meringue method, I followed my (sort of) trusty macaron recipe that is adapted from Tartlette's basic macaron recipe. I decided not to add lemon zest to the batter this time, but might try it again next time, but will probably add it to the food processor along with the almonds and powdered sugar.

This order coincided beautifully with a wedding cake tasting that I had for Friday morning. They didn't give me a whole lot of direction when it came to cake/filling flavors so I just made a few new ones and a few of my favorites/best sellers. I made a dark chocolate cake with salted caramel buttercream, chocolate cake with whipped chocolate ganache, white cake with almond buttercream, white cake with raspberry mousse and white chocolate buttercream and a white cake with lemon curd and lemon mascarpone filling. 

I borrowed the recipe for both the curd and the mascarpone filling from Ms. Humble. Actually, for the cake I just borrowed the whole darn recipe, but since it was a cake for a tasting I had a ton left over. (Oh, darn!) I colored the macaron shells with a little lemon yellow coloring and filled with with both the lemon curd and the lemon mascarpone filling so that it wouldn't be too sweet nor too tart. Oh. Man. They were awesome! This will definitely be one that is added to the "menu". It also begs to be replicated with other fruits... maybe Louisiana strawberries with fresh sweetened whipped cream? Like a strawberry shortcake macaron? (I need to find a way to get said strawberries back to Austin, of course, but Mardi Gras might work out beautifully this year...)

 In all their lemony glory!