Remember those conversation heart candies from like the 90s and early 2000s? Yeah, those reallllly chalky ones. BUT whatever they lacked in taste and texture, they sure made up for in cuteness.
Back in elementary school, my friends and I were super careful bout which messages we gave out. For example, you would never give one that says “kiss me” to a boy because of cooties, which we all know is extremely infectious and possibly fatal. And you would reserve the one that says “cute” or “xoxo” for the boy crush of your dreams who could kick the soccer ball really high during PE but was absolutely hopeless when it came to arts and crafts (which made him all the more cute). Totally nooooot speaking from personal experience ;)
Valentine’s day is coming up and I decided that maybe for the first time in 5 years I should post a recipe for this overly pink and cheesy occasion. Not the biggest fan of being bombarded with loud and obnoxious pink colours wherever I walk, but chocolate is involved so I can’t complain!
Lending the idea of those candy hearts, I made conversation heart macarons! Personalized, funny, and best part of all, NOT chalky. Something that people would actually want! I would know because I had a crowd of friends waiting on Facebook for me to finish baking so that they could come “help out with disposing” the macarons.
Don’t let the idea of a heart shaped macaron freak you out, they’re still easy to make! Only a little bit of wrist action is involved to trace out the heart shape. Here I even made you a PDF to help you out! This stencil fits a quarter sheet. Print 2, tape em together along the long edge and you’ll have the right size for a half sheet.
Download: heart macarons stencil
Don’t know what to write on yours? You could pull a Ryan Gosling and be like “Hey Girl”
If gangsta is more your style, and you have a fine lady/man in your life, tell em
Here’s my sister’s creation. She insisted on writing that quote, weirdness runs in the family. Can you name the movie?
My brother joined in too. Yeah we’re all fluent in Thug, how did you know?
The possibilities are endless!
- If making 4 colours will need 4 sets of:
- 120g egg whites, room temperature
- 40g granulated sugar
- 140g almond flour
- 240g icing sugar
- Food colouring, if using
- White Chocolate Ganache
- 1.5 cups white chocolate chips
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 2 tsp vanilla paste
- Gold Messages
- Luster Dust
- Lemon extract
- Paint Brush
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, whisk egg whites until frothy
- Add the granulated sugar and whisk on full speed until shiny and stiff peaks
- Add food colouring at this step if using
- Measure and sift icing sugar with almond flour to get rid of any large lumps
- Pour almond mixture onto egg whites
- Gently fold until incorporated (no streaks of egg white left) and the mixture is thick enough to form ribbons when lifted up and left to droop
- Line baking sheet with parchment (or another baking liner) with the stencil fitted underneath. Fill mixture into piping bags fitted with a circular tip. A ziplock bag will do if you don’t have a piping bag.
- Trace the stencil, work quickly since the mixture drips easily and make sure to only pipe within the lines
- Preheat oven to 250 for convection or 325 for regular ovens (temperature will vary depending on the type of oven you have)
- Let the unbaked macarons sit out to “dry”. This step could take anywhere from 30-60mins. Test by touching the surface, if it doesn’t stick to your finger, it’s ready to bake
- Bake for 5-8 minutes, then open the door and rotate the pans to bake for another 5-8 minutes
- Let cool completely before removing from parchment
- Microwave heavy cream until simmering
- Pour over white chocolate, let it sit for about a minute, then stir to melt the chocolate
- Add vanilla paste, stir to combine
- Let sit until cool, then slightly whip it with a fork or whisk to bring up the volume
- Mix luster dust with a couple drops of lemon extract. The ratio of dust to extract is about 5:1. This makes your edible “paint”
- Dip paint brush with just enough to write a message across the top. If you use my stencil, you will have enough space for 2 four letter words.
- Let the “paint” dry.
- Flip the other half of the shells (the unwritten ones) upside down and fill with white chocolate ganache.
- Top with a macaron shell that has a message on it.
- Eat it. Enjoy it!
These are so cute! Your macs are awesome.
aw shucks, thanks Chris! :)
LMAO – i love all of them! But my faves are “you fine” “you aite” and “can’t even” You’re hilarious! And extremely talented – I’ve never made macarons because they FREAK.ME.OUT. So intimidating. I can’t stand the thought of spending all my time and about a hundred dollars worth of ground almond meal to end up with a total mess on my hands. And your writing on the macarons is adorbs – my handwriting is basically illegible. Love love love this post!
I used to be freaked out too because I started with the italian macaron… so much more intimidating. Then I tried French macarons and they are so much easier! Oh the weird thing, I thought macs would cost me a fortune too but I did some costs analysis and it costs me next to nothing to make a batch!
So cute! Great idea! Where did you get the luster dust?
hi mimi! I get mine from michaels but gourmet warehouse on clark and hastings sells them too!
GET OUT. These are beyond perfect. I would be your valentine purely for the macarons. :) :)
:O a training pastry chef gave my macarons a thumbs up. SO HONOURED *bows down*
eh yo
These are cute and I love the heart stencil!
Thank you Linda!