French macarons are a bit of a party trick for me. While they’re famously hard to make, I’ve spent the past five years or so making sure every. single. batch. comes out of the oven with beautiful feet. Of course, I have Camila Hurst over at Pies & Tacos to thank for introducing me to the Swiss method of making macarons. It’s such a game-changer.
The Famous Macaron Cube Cake
Now, if you’ve spent any time on Pinterest and happen to have a penchant for baking, you’ve probably come across the viral macaron cube cake. I know I have. The most striking ones incorporate, like, six different flavors of macarons, all dipped and adorned with fancy garnishes. It’s #goals for sure.
But if you’re a home baker like me, you probably don’t have the time—or wherewithal—to make six different batches of filled and garnished macarons, only to painstakingly assemble them into a three-by-three-by-three macaron cake. So, I decided to take a shortcut, and that shortcut’s name is Neapolitan.
Neapolitan Ice Cream Turned Macarons
Neapolitan (the American take on the Italian flavor combo, that is) is convenient because it brings together three winning flavors, each with its own lovely shade. I figured if I could combine these flavors into one macaron, I’d have one big batch of multicolored treats that could make for their own stunning display in cube-cake form.
For the macarons, I had two canvases to work with: the shells and the filling. Macaron shells are a bit tricky to flavor, since adding too many ingredients beyond egg whites, sugar, and almond flour can sabotage your results. (That’s why most macarons are merely dyed to suggest what flavor the filling is.)
So, strawberry shells were out. (Don’t suggest freeze-dried strawberry powder here. I’ve tried!) That left chocolate and vanilla for the shells, then strawberry for the filling. Easy enough.
A few minutes of recipe scouring later, I had my game plan: chocolate and vanilla macaron shells from Pies & Tacos, plus strawberry ganache from Homebody Eats. Details ahead—it’s a bit of a project but super worth it.
Neapolitan Macaron Cube “Cake”
Nutrition per portion
Ingredients
- For the chocolate macaron shells
- 100 g egg whites
- 100 g granulated sugar
- 96 g almond flour
- 75 g powdered sugar
- 14 g cocoa powder
- For the vanilla macaron shells
- 100 g granulated sugar
- 100 g egg whites
- 105 g almond flour
- 105 g almond flour
- ¼ tsp vanilla extract
- For the strawberry ganache
- 1 ¼ c (213 g) white chocolate chips
- 3 TB (42 g) unsalted butter
- ⅓ c heavy cream
- 1 c freeze-dried strawberries, finely pulsed
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
- Extra powdered sugar, for thickening the ganache
Method
- Prepare Camila Hurst's Chocolate Macaron Shells according to her instructions. Allow them to cool completely. Her recipes use the Swiss method of making macarons, which I find to be the most consistent while staying relatively simple. You can skip the meringue powder, and I recommend using black cocoa powder for a dramatic look.
- Prepare Camila Hurst’s Vanilla Macaron Shells according to her instructions. I never have whole vanilla beans, so I use vanilla extract instead. Don’t add too much, or your shells could turn out wonky.
- Prepare Jessica Mode’s Strawberry Ganache according to her instructions. I pulse the freeze-dried strawberries in my Vitamix. Because this recipe contains white chocolate, getting it to piping consistency will be a little tricky. I recommend letting it cool to room temperature, outside of the fridge.
- Assemble your macarons. Start by pairing similarly sized chocolate and vanilla shells together. Then, use a piping bag fitted with a round #12 tip to pipe a small amount of strawberry ganache onto the inside of one of the shells. (It helps to hold the bag still as you pipe, allowing the ganache to spread out under the tip.) Leave a few millimeters of space between the edge of the ganache and the edge of the shell. Then, set the matching shell on top and push down gently. Repeat until you have 27 filled Neapolitan macarons.
- Assemble your cake. This is optional, but I recommend beating a spoonful or two of powdered sugar into your remaining strawberry ganache to give it a firmer hold. This will be your “glue.” Starting with the middle macaron of the bottom tier, pipe a dab of ganache onto one edge of the macaron and then place this edge down onto your plate or cake stand so it stands up on its own. Pipe a dab on either side of this macaron and then push two other macarons into either side so that they face perpendicularly. Repeat this process to create a bottom tier with nine macarons, followed by two more tiers of nine macarons.
- Pipe any remaining ganache in decorative flourishes around your cake for a little extra je ne sais quoi.
Also, what the heck happened to my photo file here?
