Mocha Macarons - almost fail

WOAH, that was quick. Holidays are almost over. I haven't done a lot of things I wanted to do, one being more baking, since once school starts I will be spending most of my time "studying". Something I wanted to make in the holios was Momofuku's Chocolate Chip Cake, but was too lazy to plan and buy the ingredients and special equipment. I also wanted to make a croquembouche and Gary's Black Forest Cake from Masterchef. As you can tell I'm a very wishful baker. Although, I did make homemade Pizza, lemon merigune pie, melting moments and two layered cakes. Oh look, I did make quite a lot of things. But everyone of those things were impromptu and made half-heartedly, so no photos and bad presentation :(.

Anyway, back to the macarons. My sister and I had a craving for macarons, and conveniently Almond meal was on sale at Coles and lately I've been into mocha flavoured things, hence Mocha flavoured macarons. 

I used Raspberri Cupcakes' chocolate macarons and Whisk Kid's mocha ganache. This was the third time I've ever attempted to make macarons and it didn't go so well. I followed the instructions carefully, folded the batter to a lava consistency. After I piped them, everything seemed good. The macaron's had smooth and shiny tops. They looked like they should've turned out well but they came out with cracked tops. (I think it may have been because I didn't tap out all the air bubbles.)

The only reason why I didn't deem these macarons as a total fail was that the flavour was amazing. Ganache is always delicious, but this coffee/chocolate ganache and chocolate/almond macaron shell pairs together really well. 

I'd recommend anyone to try these and hopefully you'll have better luck with the macarons!

Chocolate macaron recipe @ raspberricupcakes

Mocha Ganache recipe @ whisk-kid