Winnie the Pooh, Tigger & Eeyore Macarons

I got the chance to make Winnie the Pooh and friends macarons again as a gift for a birthday girl. Character macarons are more challenging than regular round macarons, not only because of the shape, but also because with macarons, there is the additional challenge of figuring which layers to pipe, and when! 

Pooh, Tigger & Eeyore Macarons

The last few times I tried making these Pooh & friends macarons , I had issues with feet forming in the middle of Eeyore's face, and the batter flattening out for TIgger. I think both these issues have to do with the "batter piping order" and drying time in between the layers.

colourful maacaron batter

Before getting all fancy with the piping, the most important component of macarons, is obviously the batter! I always use the French method because I'm just more comfortable with it. No boiling hot sugar syrup, like with the Italian method. After getting the batter to "lava" stage, I split it into 5 bowls and dyed the batter using food gel. I used Wilton's Delphine Blue to get the grey-blue shade for Eeyore.

piping batter in stages

And now comes the tricky part. Which parts to pipe first? Do you pipe everything all at once? Well, the first thing to do is pipe circles, just like making regular macarons. Leave that to dry until a skin forms on the top and it's dry to the touch. (I dried them in an air-conditioned room for 15 mins). 

finally in the oven!

After the base circles are dry, the next layer can be piped on. That's the ears and the hands. If you pipe the ears and hands on during the first round, there will be a clean join between the ears and hands with the face, instead of a slight segregation. Anyway, let this layer dry again so that they'll rise nicely with feet before piping the next layer.

The last layer to go on is the white part of Tigger & Eeyore's faces and the raised part of Pooh's face. This layer just needs to be left to dry for another 5 mins before they can be popped in the oven. If you let this layer dry completely, you will probably get feet forming where you don't want them to form. On the other hand, if you don't let them dry for 5 mins, when they go into the oven the batter may run off to the sides. This is just what I've found out during my baking trials, but I'm sure there are other ways to do this and what doesn't work for me may work for other people! 

cute little faces

Once the macarons are baked and cooled, I drew the details of their faces using a black edible ink food marker. I drew their faces "Tsum Tsum" style, just like their characters in the game. I'm actually pretty addicted to the Tsum Tsum game and I play it every night before going to bed!

chocolate ganache filling

The macarons were filled with dark chocolate ganache. I always use a 2:1 ratio by weight of chocolate to cream when making ganache for macarons, so that it has a firmer texture and doesn't run off the sides when the macarons are stood up.

Tigger, Eeyore & Pooh macarons

super cute macarons!

Each macaron was individually packed in a cellophane bag, sealed with a plastic sealer. It's my first time using this "cheapo" sealer that I mail-ordered from China for about $2. It runs on a single AA battery, with a small heating element that activates when the top part contacts the bottom of the sealer. Good enough to seal these bags! 

individually sealed for freshness

all packed up and ready to gift