This month for Mac Tweets we’re taking a walk on the wild side and creating a macaron inspired by the wild animal of our choice. Most of you probably don’t know that a flock of flamingos lives at my house. Every year for the last 26 years, Santa Flamingo delivers a flamingo to my husband to join the flock. Sometimes more than one flamingo a year takes up residence at our house.
Since we all know flamingos enjoy macarons, I decided to invite the flock inside for a macaron party. Many of the flamingos were shy and didn’t want to come out of hiding to get their picture taken. The toilet plunger flamingo is an especially shy variety.
I bought my first box of Wilton Icing Colors so that my flamingo macs would be a gorgeous pink color. I don’t know if I was too worried about getting the color right and didn’t whip my egg whites enough, or if it was the fact that I only left the egg whites on the counter a couple of hours, or maybe it was all the rain we’ve been getting, but no matter the reason, my batter was too thin.
I added some extra almond meal and powdered sugar, but not enough. I knew it wasn’t going to pipe well as soon as i was putting it in the bag. But at that point I figured it was probably over mixed and I wasn’t going to get feet anyway, so I just forged ahead. I’ve decided the reason they all ran together was because they are flamingo macs and flamingos live in colonies and don’t like to be alone.
I used the Ottolenghi Macaron recipe that I’ve posted before and added a teaspoon of lemonade powder. I filled them with some Strawberry Freezer Jam I made recently. These weren’t the prettiest macs I’ve ever made, but they were delicious, maybe even my favorite flavor yet. The flamingos seem very pleased with the macs made in their honor.
If you haven’t entered my CSN Stores Giveaway yet, be sure and leave a comment on that post for a chance to win a $60 gift certificate. Stop by Mac Tweets on June 15th for a roundup of the wildly creative macs that invaded the blogosphere this month.
Shea M.
Great post, and adorable story! I love flamingos – even managed to find some at our park here in Germany. Never saw two male flamingos going at each other before – I'm sure yours are more peaceful 🙂 Absolutely gorgeous color!
Deeba PAB
ROFL GF…what a collection, and I wanna see the shy toilet plunger one too. How intriguing that you have a visitor as beautiful and wild as flamingos, and how lovely that you captured the spirit in these macs. I have NEVER been able to achieve such a gorgeous colour. LOVE your macs Barbara, and love having you at MacTweets!
bake in paris
Your pink flamingo macarons are such an inspiration….. cute and adorable 🙂
Sawadee from Bangkok,
Kris
Amanda
I love your flamingos Barbara! These macaroons are gorgeous!
vickys
That is incredibly adorable!!! I am feeling that a flamingo party is in order! They're the only bird I'm not petrified of. 🙂 Maybe it's the pink.
I LOVE YOUR COLLECTION!
colehillkitchen
love love love these!! i'm a massive macaron fan and i adore how bright and zany these are!! Becca 🙂
Nisrine@Dinners and Dreams
The macarons look so pretty, almost too pretty to eat:)
tasteofbeirut
The color alone of these macarons would lure me! Love the strawberry jam filling too.
Sarah, Maison Cupcake
Hallo Barbara, long time no see, I love how you managed to tie an animal theme into pink macarons, I would never have remembered about pink flamingos even though I've seen plenty of them in the Camargue in France on holiday.
I have a lot of catching up to do, I'm off to check out whether you did the croquembouche for DB now!! We must Skype again soon too, it's been ages.