Buttercup Macarons and Mango Lime Cupcakes

The month’s Mac Tweets challenged us to create the perfect macaron inspired by a movie. The first movie that came to mind is a family favorite that we have watched over and over again for years. And even though I know all the jokes, they still make me laugh.

Princess Bride is “a classic fairy tale, with swordplay, giants, an evil prince, a beautiful princess, and yes, some kissing.” I don’t mind the kissing parts so much. In fact, who wouldn’t want a kiss like Princess Buttercup and Wesley’s kiss at the end of the story. “Since the invention of the kiss there have been five kisses that were rated the most passionate, the most pure. This one left them all behind.” Awwwwww

So in honor of Princess Buttercup and her happily ever after, I created a pretty yellow Buttercup macaron. I used the adapted Ottolenghi recipe for the macaron shells with a generous pinch of cardamom added to the powdered sugar and almond flour mixture. They’re filled with a mango cream cheese filling.

While searching for a Mango filling recipe, I stumbled upon a fabulous blog that I hadn’t visited before, Vanilla Garlic, and his Mango Lime Cupcakes with Neufchâtel Cheese Frosting. Since I had Neufchâtel Cheese in the fridge, I decided to add mango to his frosting recipe to create a pretty yellow filling for my macs. And since the recipe made more frosting than I needed for my macs, I thought I might as well give the cupcake recipe a try at the same time.

Neufchâtel Cheese is softer than Cream Cheese due to its lower fat and higher moisture content. I almost always use it instead of regular cream cheese. But with the additional moisture from the mango, I had a really hard time getting my filling to firm up. In the end, my frosting was a bit too soft, even though I added plenty of additional powdered sugar.

But it really didn’t matter much because these sinfully delicious cupcakes were scrumptious even without icing. Garrett describes them as intensely rich, moist, and dense, and they definitely are. Sort of like a citrus flavored pound cake. Since it’s so dense the cupcake center will sink, but Garret says, “don’t worry about the sinking because the mango has so much moisture it can’t really be helped. A small smear of frosting helps the presentation.”

So give these cupcakes a try and while you’re at it “have fun storming the castle!”

Sue Sparks, Munchkin Munchies, is the winner of my $75 Novice Giveaway. Congratulations! Sue and I are fellow Daring Bakers and have been visiting each others blogs for a long while now. Be sure at stop by and congratulation her. Have fun shopping Sue!