Let's Make Some Whoopie!

With Valentine's Day right around the corner, and my own love being away in the Navy, I've decided to make a hot mess in this kitchen of mine. This includes making and packaging whoopie pies and french macarons to nearby patrons, and friends and family across the country.

So far, it has been a delicious, unsettling, forever messy endeavor. The flavor's are red velvet whoopie pies with cream cheese filling and strawberry parisian macarons dipped in dark chocolate. I've played with the variations of the recipes and added my own little twist to each, making sure that each individual loves their homemade confections.

So here are the whoopie pies in all their staging glory. I know, I know, the photos were taken with instagram which is lame, but I'm a bitch-on-a-budget and will buy a camera in due time. I'm also planning to use these adorable printables (courtesy of WorldLabel) for packaging, along with my twine and plain-jane white tissue paper. Keeping it simple. 

And now the Parisian Macarons

THESE were fudging difficult! After two trials, with two different recipes, I'm STILL not happy with the final result. Here is a brief synaposis of my hair-pulling, nail-biting adventure:

• Discovering just how EXPENSIVE almond meal is. My inner Adler was screaming and yelling "oy vey" to $10 for a mere 3 cups of meal. 
• Gel Food Coloring: So I have a professional kit, which for the most part has been amazing. I am, however, freggin' retarded when it comes to the warmer colors. The oranges, reds, pinks and yellows always stump me. I either end up with a faint, grayish color (not enough food coloring) or pastel based acid trip which screams "OBNOXIOUS" to your eyes (obviously, too much). For this endeavor, I went by the route of the latter. Hot fuschia stripper macaroons. 
• What is lava consistency? So the recipe I followed originally stated that the macaroon should have a lava-like consistency. Umm, I made a vomit-like consistency. Which was meringue based. So sticky, hot pink vomit. 
• Finally, the cookies did not rise. They resulted in the crispy thin wafer things, which to be honest, turned out kinda-delicous. 

Take Two

The second batch was sooo much better. I did have a beer in-between the two takes, so my "circles" turned out to be giant ponds. Meh. They still turned out DELICIOUS. And paired with my homemade strawberry buttercream and then dipped into dark chocolate. Yes.

So, this has been my day today. Again, if you'd like to brave it out and give them a go, GO FOR IT. However, if you'd like to enjoy some of these confections, inbox me and I'll be happy to send some your way!


Best,
-Dana


*If you'd like to know the changes I've made to the recipes, don't be afraid to comment. Later post will focus on the carrying out of recipes, much like traditional blogs, but this one is just to show off what I've been doing.