Orange Chocolate Macaron Playground

I had an idea for a playground with moveable macaron pieces some time last year but didn't get the chance to make until now. My friends have been very kind to be my guinea pigs for this creation and they did so gladly!

Front view of the playground with a slide, Merry-go-round and seesaw

Back view of the playground. I have to show this or the ladder of the slide won't be showcased at all.

Here's a short video of the Merry-go-round and seesaw in action!

As with all unique new creations, I won't be releasing the details of how to make the parts and put them together yet. The seesaw structure is a slight variation from my macaron ferris wheel so it was easy to adapt. The Merry-go-round mechanics needed more planning as it is my first time making something heavy that is able to rotate about its vertical axis.

I used the reduced sugar recipe for the macaron shells here. Both regular and reduced sugar recipes can be found here. You may refer to my Creative Baking: Macarons book for a systematic presentation of the basics and complex shaped macarons. You may refer to my video tutorials for macaron basics and piping of complex shapes on the blog too.

Just to share some pictures of the process...

Piping the cute characters

I filled the shells with a ring of orange white chocolate and orange dark chocolate in the middle.

Recipe for orange chocolate filling
Ingredients:
80-90g white or dark chocolate (buttons or finely chopped from a bar)
20g vegetable shortening
1/8 tsp fine sea salt
1/2-3/4 tsp orange oil (or 1 tbs orange zest)

Steps:
1. Put all ingredients in a microwave safe bowl and melt using medium power for 20sec. Stir and repeat as necessary until smooth and melted completely. Alternatively you may use a double boiler to melt all the ingredients together.

2. Let the mixture cool until it reaches toothpaste consistency. Transfer to piping bag and pipe onto the shells.

Filling the character shells.

Filling the side frames of the slide 

My friends and those at their gathering enjoyed playing with the playground before they made the painful decision to eat it 😅. Not only does the playground look good, it tasted good too! Here's my friend's feedback:

"the macarons taste really good too! couldn't stop eating and the kids had a very tough time to choose which one to eat 😏"

I had much fun creating this! If anyone of you would like to challenge me with new macaron structures, let me know. If it piques my interest, I will be more willing to make time to explore how to make it a reality 😉.  There are so many different designs and projects I have come up with that I have decided to create a separate "Macaron structures" label in the blog to accommodate them! I began with static structures like carousels and table with two chairs and bears sitting on them, to structures with moveable parts like Ferris Wheel, tricycle and now, Merry-go-round and seesaw! I have another exciting new macaron structure with moveable parts coming up in March so stay tuned! Gone are the days when "macaron structure" = macaron tower. Let your imagination run wild and there's so much more you can do!

With love,
Phay Shing