A Weekend of Baking...Chocolate orange macaroons and tipsy orange truffle cake, stage one

As I have a few days off over my birthday, I have really been looking forward to getting into the kitchen to do some baking! As has been the tradition over the last few years I have picked a new recipe to try for my Birthday cake, and this year I have chosen Peggy Porschen's Tipsy Orange Truffle Cake from her Boutique Baking book. Alongside this I also wanted to try macaroons again, after my slightly failed attempt before, so I decided to try chocolate orange macaroons to compliment the flavour of my cake, and to also use them for decoration.

After the last attempt at macaroons, I used the most basic recipe from my Laudree recipe book, and kept the colour completely natural. I used a mixture of drawn guides, hand piping and a Lakeland macaroon mould to try all of the options, and I have to say the Lakeland mould came up trumps for size, uniformity and shape, I may be taking a trip to go and get another one! I also cooked the shells for slightly longer than it suggested in the recipe, and this seemed to work perfectly.

Sieving, whisking, folding, resting and cooling, it's all go when making macaroons!

Whilst they were drying out, I made the sponges for the tipsy orange truffle cake and when they were baked, I brushed the tops with a sugar syrup mixture of orange juice, Grand Marnier (one of my new favourite ingredients, delicious!) and caster sugar. There was so much left, I think I may use it in a cupcake recipe I have planned for Tuesday.

Once the macaroon shells were dry, I made a chocolate ganache and flavoured it with orange oil. I piped the mixture onto half of the macaroon shells, and then sandwiched the other half on top. I was surprised how much filling they held as they look so small and delicate, but after a night resting in the fridge I hope they all taste equally delicious. I have saved some empty shells for decoration around the edge of my cake, and I hope these will add to my planned design.

For a second attempt I am really chuffed with the macaroons. There were a mixture of sizes, and some were a little off perfectly round, but they did taste rather good! I'm looking forward to experimenting with different colours and flavours now I feel more confident.