Giraffe & Horse Earl Grey and Cocoa Macarons with Whipped Caramel Filling

I made these horse and giraffe macarons for fun with leftover batter from my Rilakkuma bake :). Please refer to that post for the recipe.

I tried to use macaron batter to create these animals as far as possible in order to reduce the amount of royal icing used to fill in the details. Macarons are already sweet enough on their own!

Here's the homemade template I used...

Here are the freshly piped shells along with Rilakkuma! The light brown batter is Earl Grey flavoured and the dark brown shell is cocoa flavoured. I used a 3mm round tip for the the ears, horn and spots. Use a toothpick to pull the batter to the shape that is desired.

Leave out the details for the bottom shells.

Freshly baked shells!

A closer look at the feet!

I used royal icing for the horse's hair and the nostrils.

In order to create features that stick out from a character's face, I usually prepare the part separately on a baking sheet first. Here's an example for the horse's hair. I used cocoa powder and some brown gel food colouring to get the dark brown colour. Too much cocoa powder may cause the royal icing to have difficulty drying due to the oil present.

Always dry the pre-iced features thoroughly before attempting to remove from baking sheet or they will break. I dried mine in the oven at 60°C fan mode to speed things up.

Stick the hair on with some royal icing. Add on brown nostrils with royal icing. Draw the eyes using edible marker or black royal icing.

Fill the shells with whipped caramel.

I actually made all these in one session!

My kids got to enjoy the extras!

With love,
Phay Shing