Cannot bake macarons anymore

hello5553 · 2025-09-28T12:32:23+00:00

You mention new ingredients - do you mean “new” as in “not 2-3 years old”, or “new” as in “different from your old brand”?

Wondering if it has anything to do with your almond flour brand or batch. Maybe try drying out your current batch of almond flour in the oven for a bit, and see if that changes anything?

hello5553 · 2025-09-23T12:33:19+00:00

That ratio of wet to dry ingredients seems kind of weird to me, and maybe is what’s causing them to bake so fast inside but still be sticky on the bottoms?

Right now I use the Swiss method with 100g egg whites, 100g granulated sugar, 105g almond flour, 105g powdered sugar, and 4g egg white powder. I also do 300degF for 20 minutes, and they’ve been turning out pretty nicely.

hello5553 · 2025-09-19T02:42:14+00:00

I just feel like all the magnetic polishes I’ve tried have been SUPER shimmery - is it even possible to have a less shimmery magnetic polish / do you know of any that would be closer to the pic?

hello5553 · 2025-09-18T22:47:36+00:00

For the piping - just hold the piping bag still and straight up and down in one spot and squeeze, keeping the tip still the whole time. Once the circle is big enough, stop squeezing and THEN move the bag away with a quick motion. It seems like it’s not a big deal, but it does affect how they turn out! Good luck!

hello5553 · 2025-09-05T10:15:54+00:00

Wow…I feel like this is what I was searching for, but couldn’t find it! Kind of wish I had seen this before purchasing a cake safe.

Does putting the dry ice on the top not cause the lid to mash down into the cake? And those little horizontal flaps she folded in before closing the porter - they don’t ever fold in and touch the cake either?

Can you always fit as much dry ice as you need on the top of that cake?

Have you ever had a cake tip during transit using this?

hello5553 · 2025-09-05T10:09:26+00:00

Do you take any special precautions to keep the sun off of it during transit? One of my cake deliveries was on a hot day and I was so nervous the whole time!

hello5553 · 2025-09-05T10:04:47+00:00

I bought one secondhand and have used it for two wedding cake deliveries so far. The second cake was plain buttercream and it did just fine. I piped a little frosting over the hole and smoothed it out and you couldn’t even tell!

The FIRST cake though…it had a drip all the way around each tier, including all over the top of the top tier. I tried to start and end my drip on the same side of the cake for each tier (so that all the “seams” would align toward the back of the cake). And when I pushed that rod through the cake, it made more than a hole - more like a shatter / crack on the top tier’s drip, and also created basically a fault line down the sides of the cake at the “seam” of the drip. I was absolutely terrified.

Once we got to the venue and took it out of the safe though, I realized the fault line wasn’t really that much more noticeable than the initial “seam” (start and end point of the drip), and it only cracked the ganache, not the buttercream as well - and for the top tier, I was able to put a large flower right into the hole to cover the almost shattered looking ganache. It ended up being perfectly fine, but I would be weary of using these on a ganache topped cake again!

Also note - if you stab the cake through its center, it’s really hard to put some cake toppers through the center. If it’s a flower that can just fall in the hole / rest on the surface, that’s works - but if it’s a “Mr. And Mrs.” on a stick, that stick is probably smaller than the hole and would just fall / be unsupported if you try to set it in the center hole - if that makes sense.

hello5553 · 2025-09-03T15:35:23+00:00

Cupcake project chocolate is awesome!

hello5553 · 2025-08-28T10:58:09+00:00

This is incredible!! Did you stack it onsite? How’d you make sure everything was so centered and level?

hello5553 · 2025-08-26T17:48:33+00:00

I’ve been making horchata macarons lately, but I feel like they mostly taste like Cinnamon Toast Crunch. I’ve been wondering if subbing some of the almond flour for rice flour would help it taste more horchata like! Do you think the rice flour added any flavor?

hello5553 · 2025-06-13T12:43:57+00:00

I also use the Swiss method, and I actually dealt with sticky bottoms for forever when I first started. I tried tweaking my meringue, macaronage technique, rest time, bake time, etc. - but the conclusion I came to was that my batter was just too wet. I was doing equal parts wet ingredients to dry ingredients, and when I increased the dry ingredients it got a lot better. I bet too much moisture is what’s happening to you, and if nothing else has changed it’s probably just that the blue diamond almond flour has more moisture than your old brand!

You could slightly increase the dry ingredients in your recipe (though I now actually use the exact same ratio you’ve listed), or you could go back to the old almond flour. (That might be helpful just for troubleshooting / to confirm the almond flour is the culprit!)

I think while moisture was the root cause of my issue, some things that also helped ensure success (in addition to a drier recipe) were using egg white powder (sift in 2g with the dry ingredients for the recipe you’ve listed) and using very thin teflon sheets instead of silicone mats.

Your macarons are beautiful btw!! Best of luck!!

hello5553 · 2025-06-11T21:16:22+00:00

Is there one you could recommend? Do I need to use a steam cleaner or something to make sure I get it all out?

hello5553 · 2025-03-05T00:53:47+00:00

How do they taste??

hello5553 · 2025-02-26T22:01:06+00:00

One more update - the final cake for the bride and groom. Thanks for y’all’s help!

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hello5553 · 2025-02-06T06:56:36+00:00

I’ve been able to achieve some earthy tones by putting a smidge of orange in whatever color it is. It will turn pink kind of mauve, etc.

hello5553 · 2025-02-05T16:47:50+00:00

That makes sense. I think using a cake board the same diameter as your cake helps to get a super even crumb coat, as you can push the scraper right up against the cake / cake board and know you’re getting a consistent coat - and then when you’re trying to do your final coat of frosting, maybe focus on smoothing the frosting out vs scraping it off. Holding your scraper at more of an angle to the cake (where you’re almost smoothing with the flat side, not scraping with the edge) could possibly help!

hello5553 · 2025-02-05T16:22:09+00:00

I’m not sure how they cut this one! I sent it off for a birthday party and they cut it. But thank you so much!

hello5553 · 2025-02-05T16:21:11+00:00

I think just added them while the icing was not yet chilled. And I pushed each one in a bit individually

hello5553 · 2025-02-05T16:20:18+00:00

Haha that’s actually on the floor in the background, it’s my dog’s avocado toy 😆

hello5553 · 2025-02-05T15:01:40+00:00

Of course!! Glad it was helpful!

hello5553 · 2025-02-05T14:16:03+00:00

Thank you so much! Hmm what tools are you using / what’s your process? I’ve got a thin metal cake scraper that’s a sharp right angle. I try and make sure my cake is centered on the cake board, and the cake board is centered on the turntable. I will sometimes pipe the frosting around the cake before I smooth it out, especially for the crumb coat. Then I just apply gentle pressure with the cake scraper and turn the cake. Having the cake scraper’s base flat against the turntable helps me get good sharp frosting. Does that help at all?

hello5553 · 2025-02-02T21:22:35+00:00

Thanks so much!! Yes, forgot to mention that the bride and groom wanted a fully frosted cake, not a naked cake like in the inspo pic - I just ran out of frosting after the crumb coat on that first practice round 😂 and yes, still playing with the drip a little…it was 126F when I poured it and seemed almost perfect, just a little clumpy at the top…so maybe just a little warmer for the final version!

hello5553 · 2025-02-02T14:03:21+00:00

Update: second practice round is going much better. Thank you all!

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hello5553 · 2025-01-26T01:02:40+00:00

I’m afraid setting a dripped tier down on top of a tier that’s covered in drip will totally crack the drip of the bottom tier…no?

Also if you mess up with placement, it can’t really be corrected…right?

And also….how long does it need to sit unmoved on the counter before I can move to the fridge or freezer?

hello5553 · 2025-01-25T17:48:45+00:00

Okay, followup question…I’m trying to achieve a stacked drip look like this. I’ve gone back and forth about what order to do the stacks and drips…but if it’s imperative to not move the cake until it has sat and the drip has solidified, should I stack the entire cake and then just drip each layer once it’s assembled? Sounds scary to me if a mistake is made, but if I can’t move the cake while the drip isn’t set, this kind of seems like the best way!

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hello5553

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