Hello Kitty French Macarons!
Our little big-girl is turning 4 this month. Somehow she had the idea she wanted a Hello Kitty themed birthday party. I think it was the Hello Kitty bounce house that caught her eye while perusing the jumper web site :) While I'm not going all-out on this party and it's going to mostly be our regular group of Friday happy hour mommies and kids, a girl's got to have some fancy treats on her birthday, right? I'm sure I'll have some pictures for y'all after the party, but was so excited about these cute little Hello Kitty French Macarons, I just had to share them with you. I wish I could take credit for this darling idea, but I first saw Hello Kitty Macarons on the blog i heart baking.
French macarons can be a little tricky, so this is not a project to attempt the night before a party. My first batch went straight into the trash. Okay, so maybe a few went into my tummy too. They tasted fine, but were lumpy on the top. No big deal for your everyday round macs, but not acceptable for a cute little Hello Kitty face! The problem was that I had under folded the meringue mixture with the almond flour mixture. You have to completely incorporate the two so that they flow in a ribbon from a spatula (but not too fluid either!). Don't worry too much about deflating the egg whites. To make the Hello Kitty shape, pipe circles of batter onto parchment. Then there are two ways to make the ears. One, you can use a toothpick to immediately draw out some of the batter into two points. Two, and the way I found easier, pipe two points with your pastry bag. You must have the right size tip to use this method however. About .5" round tip.
Use food coloring pens to draw the faces on your kitties. These pens can be found at craft stores and most larger grocery stores in the baking aisle. This turned out to be a very fun activity for the birthday girl who loved drawing faces on some of the kitties!
Into the freezer these cuties go until next week!
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