Macaron Birthday Cake
My new favorite way to celebrate birthdays is with this 4 inch Macaron Birthday Cake! It has 4 layers of vanilla macarons, vanilla French Buttercream, and decorated with mini macarons!
It’s somebody’s birthday somewhere out there and we’re celebrating with a macaron birthday cake! Since I was already playing around with different size macarons and made Mini Macarons, I thought it would be pretty epic to make large ones again. And what better flavor than birthday cake?!
[adthrive-in-post-video-player video-id=”PIN0d6TS” upload-date=”2021-12-12T00:00:00.000Z” name=”Figure 8 for Macaron Batter” description=”How to know when your batter is done for macarons” player-type=”default” override-embed=”default”]How to make Macaron Birthday Cake
Ok full disclosure…I’ve made a Macaron Cake before. However, this one is special because I made sure to have some leftover batter to make Mini Macarons to decorate with.
To make the Macaron Birthday Cake I used my Vanilla Macarons recipe, which has step by step photos of the process. With the batter, I piped 4 large, 4-inch macarons and used the extra batter to make mini macarons, about ¾-1 inch.
Once you’ve made your buttercream and the macarons are done baking and cooled, you can assemble and decorate!
Macaron Layers
I use the Swiss method to make my macaron layers. This method involves cooking the egg whites which creates a more stable meringue. I’ve tried the French and Italian methods as well and based on what I’ve seen this is the easiest method to bake and remember.
All you need is 100g of all your ingredients, minus the vanilla. As always, I HIGHLY recommend a digital scale because macarons can be very particular!
Ingredients:
- Almond Flour: Macarons require a nut flour to give it that light and airy texture. They usually use almond flour and I recommend sticking to that since it is easier to find in store and is the most widely used. I haven’t tried other nut flours so I cannot personally speak to using any other kind.
- Sugar: There are two types of sugar used in macarons- granulated and powdered. The meringue requires granulated sugar to incorporate air, while the powdered sugar gets added at the end with the almond flour.
- Egg Whites: You need egg whites when you make the meringue. There are egg substitutes and although I have made eggless meringue, I have never made it in my macarons so I cannot recommend it.
French Buttercream
You can use whatever buttercream you like for the frosting. I made French Buttercream and halved my recipe to make just enough.
If you’re looking for something simpler, I recommend American Buttercream or Swiss Meringue Buttercream. If you want to be more adventurous, check out my book Frosted where I have 13 base frosting recipes and 60 different ways to customize them.
Assembling a macaron birthday cake
To assemble the cake, place your first macaron on a flat surface. Use a piping bag to pipe the buttercream on top of the first layer and then top with sprinkles. Repeat with the remaining layers and then top the macaron birthday cake with more sprinkles, extra buttercream and mini macarons!
Mini Macarons for topping
As I mentioned, I have a whole blog post on mini macarons. I recommend reading that post for more details. For this particular recipe, I just reserved a little bit of the batter and piped mini macarons and baked them for 7 minutes.
For a real birthday cake feel, I topped those ones with sprinkles after piping and before baking.
Whatever you do, DON’T BAKE THE MINI MACARONS ON THE SAME PAN AS THE LARGE ONES. I’ve done that and I know I can’t be the only one out there who didn’t think about that before piping, lol.
Frequently Asked Questions
It’s your macaron birthday cake to customize however you like! I went with a classic birthday cake flavor, using vanilla and sprinkles but there are so many flavors you can try. For some inspiration check out my White Chocolate Raspberry Macarons, Chocolate Macarons, and Lemon Macarons.
These large macarons take much longer, about double the time to bake. They also brown more than traditional sized macarons. Mine are usually a light sand color, you can see the difference between the color of the large macarons and the mini ones.
When you remove them from the oven let them cool completely before removing them from the pan.
If you feel like the baking time isn’t working, I first suggest getting an oven thermometer. Some ovens don’t read the correct temperature and having one will save you a lot of frustration no matter what you bake or cook.
How to store Macaron Birthday Cake
Store your macaron birthday cake fully covered in the refrigerator. You can use a cake dome, cover it in plastic wrap, in a large airtight container or wrap it in plastic wrap.
If you are storing it in the freezer, refrigerate until it’s firm. Then wrap it in plastic wrap and place it in an airtight container.
The cake is best served at room temperature or slightly chilled.
Thanks so much for reading today’s post! If you have any questions just comment down below, I’m happy to answer! If you make this macaron birthday cake I would love to see the results, so please make sure to tag me @baranbakery on instagram and order my cookbook, Frosted. As always, have a blessed day and happy baking!
Love, B
Definitely going to make this for my stepdaughter birthday!
How can I make the shell strawberry flavored?
I would just add strawberry extract to the shells