A Ballpark Challenge with Coca-Cola Macarons
The other day I discovered another site that adores macarons: MacTweets. It’s run by Jamie and Deeba, who are both adorable macaronivores. What is particularly fun about their site, is that they set a macaron challenge every month. Last month the challenge was to have something chocolate in it. Previously, it was something spicy. I could do that! I contacted them, excitedly. Can I join in, too? I’m not on Twitter, but is that ok? The fun was going to start.
THEN I saw the challenge. This one? I honestly think I stumbled on a difficult one! 😀
Here was their macaron challenge for May:
“….Put aside all of those elegant flavors, the sophistication and beauty of those little French treats and think junk food! Transform your macs into the perfect ballpark (or couch potato) snack food! Give it the old ballpark twist, salty or sweet, creamy, crispy or ice cold and here’s a Hip Hip Hooray for the old ball game….snack!”
My first reaction was to go for a buttery, caramely popcorn. That was perfect; but I discovered quickly that others had thought of this already with beautiful popcorn adorned macarons. I had to think of something else. Not easy, especially as we’re too tempted to dream up elegant flavours and go the sophisticated route with macarons. But JUNK FOOD? I am definitely not a junk food eater but one thing I could identify with is Coca-Cola. A chilled coke in the summer heat, watching your favourite match. Could I turn this into a macaron? Hm. This was certainly mad!
I made a start, flicking – perhaps a bit too wildly in places 😉 – dark food colouring to try a visual fizz. After making them, Antoine’s cousin had a brilliant idea: I could have used some space dust fizzy sweets to crumble on top (just discovered they’re called pops rocks dips here; even better some sucre pétillant). Merci, Manu – that’s a must for next time for a real fizzy sensation on the tongue! So, ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, I present you with my Coca-Cola Ballpark Snack Macarons for MacTweets:
Coca-Cola macarons: Ballpark Snack Macs
The filling’s main ingredient is actually Coca-Cola. Hm. Not an easy one for the flavour. It needed a bit of a boost with extra flavourings. Coca-Cola extract is not something I have in my cupboards and so instead, I added a dash of caramel flavouring to concentrate the flavour.
Incidentally – if you just want the coca-cola “look” for your macarons, you could use blueberry curd as your filling (see guest recipe post for blueberry curd from BigFatBaker) for a different flavour.
Then I had some fun and sprayed them with Wilton red food colouring.
And since I’m a bit Mad About Macarons, I couldn’t resist doing a fun shot!
Happy summer games, mes amis!
Egg Yolk Recipe Series
Check out the latest recipe as part of the new series on using up your egg yolks. This week my guest is Kate from Diethood.com. She’s making us a Chocolate Crunchy Trifle with Egg Yolk Buttercream Frosting. Quick, there’s only one spoon on that plate!
Have an extra fun and fizzy week! 🙂
Amazed at the endless varieties of macarons you come up with!
So creative Jill.
xxCarolg
Hi There, This is looking absolutely delightful. Loved the new combo of ingredients and the recipe is so nicely made and presented. Saving this recipe of urs and wud love to give ur version a try on the coming weekend. Lovely pictures…Have a great day….Sonia !!!
What a great idea. The filling is really cool, and they look very pretty, too.
These are so pretty and fun! I love coca cola and I love how you misted them with a pop of color!
Ha! I just love love love it! Very creative and adorable!
Am so honored to be participating in the Mactweets challenge with you, an expert and mac book author! The Coca Cola logo is a great idea. Very creative. Love that last photo of the macs relaxing in all their colorful glory. 🙂
this is so quirky cool!
That is so, so clever! And I love the idea of pop rocks. I don’t eat a lot of junk food either but an icy-cold coke does help during summer 🙂 How did you make the filling, did I miss that bit? Very impressive take on the challenge.
OMG! Kind of retro..but very now! Love these.. you are incredibly creative!
now these are some cool macaroons your a pro he he hence your book
This is amazing, this is art on the plate. Brilliant:)
Oh wow, I’ve always been meaning to make something with cocoa cola in it, but I never really had an idea how to start. This is really creative, and looks excellent too. I’ll go check out the egg yolk stuff now 🙂
Your coca-cola macs are fantastic, and I love that you ‘carbonated’ them with pop rocks! I’m totally awed! Amazing job!
Absolutely brilliant! And so much fun…love the last photo in their little beach chairs 🙂 The pop rock idea would be a great add as well, fizzy macarons 🙂
You are so clever! Your creativity never ceases to amaze me. My hat is off to you on this one… I would have been stumped!
Jill, you certainly know how to rise to a challenge. I love your response to ‘junk food’. These are really imaginative and I love the little deck chair – very cute.
Hi! jill u are a super GENIUS! u r so creative! And those macarons look perfect and delicious! Fantastic job!
Love them!! Im not surprised though that you would come up with such a great idea! Absolutely brilliant!
I love your coca-cola macs! Brilliant idea, I didn’t even think of cola. I love the design too. Thanks so much for visiting my blog, I’m still loving your book, every recipe I have tried has been perfect. I love that you’re joining Mac Tweets too. x
Mad Hatter, Pretty Woman…wowsome and incredibly fun…coca cola and caramel…wow!
kudos!
is your editor still against large pics?
Bravo, Jill! Those are definitely ball park-ish. I love how your creative mind works.
Oooo… these are so adorable! Love them sitting on the deck chairs!
LOVE this! Such a fun twist on the macaron. You are indeed the Macaron Queen!
Jill,
You totally nailed the theme! Kudos to you. I love the picture with the straws:)
You are so darn creative!! What a fun idea… The photos came out wonderfully and you’ve captured the game!
If this is not the coolest thing I’ve seen all day, I don’t know what is! You are so awesome! Seriously, you are Jill :D.
Love the creativity you used on these. I never would have thought to use Coke. Such a fun theme to play around with.
Amazing – again – what an occasion you & your macarons create!
Well done you, what fun & flavours. Of course you could also sing along with ” I’d like to buy the world macarons, and furnish them with fruit, iced apple trees & honey tease & perfect patisserie cream. I’d like to teach the world to bake, in perfect harmony, I’d like to buy the world macarons & keep its company .. I’m the real thing 😀 Oooh soo clever Jill You are absolutely Macarons’ Real Thing 😀
These are so funny! What a great take on the junk food theme and you made them look so good. I especially like the macaron hanging out on the deck chair. Who know coke could be made into something so lovely.
I am in awe… these macs are just WOW!
Well, you just won the hearts of every American out there..LOL. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE these!!
They look fabulous, Jill! And “macaronivores” – that is so cute 😀
Hi Jill, I can appreciate the name of your blog after seeing all the incredibly pretty macarons you made. I have only try to make macaron once a few weeks ago and it was a BIG failure. My macrons become macawrongs!! I go to come here more often to get inspired to try again. Lovely work!
You are a GENIUS! I think I have already told you that, but I cannot find a better word… You are so creative! And those macarons look perfect and delicious! I’d rather have those than ANYTHING else!!! Fantastic job Jill! 🙂
You knocked this challenge out of the park Jill. Fabulous idea and very cool looking macs!
Wow Jill…you are really creative! Coca Cola macarons sound wild. I will have to jump into the macaron bandwagon soon as I am missing out on all the fun.
This is such a fun post! And I love those macarons! How creative 🙂 the ‘fun shot’ is very cute too. What is that macaron drinking? Coca Cola, perhaps? I love how that other one’s relaxing on the pool chair. Very cool macarons! Thanks for sharing, Jill!
That is just so crazy clever! I love it!
What a creative idea – I love it, especially the food coloring on the top. Making a coca-cola filling would be a tough task, and I bet the carmel extract hit the nail on the head.
Jill, these are awesome! I would never have thought to make coca cola into a macaroon, and they are so cute with the coca cola design! You are always so creative and inspiring with your recipes :)! Hope you have a wonderful week!
You make such amazing stuff! These are so cute, and have to taste wonderful! Well done!
Hi Jill! I can totally imagine your shocking face when you found out this month’s theme! But you did so well making only one of kind macarons! Cola-cola macarons!!! Macarons are simple, yet there is no limit in design, colors, and themes! What an Amazng job!!!! I don’t know anyone who’s serious and creative about macarons than you. You always surprise us with some new kind of macarons. I would never thought baking macarons can be this much fun!
Super cute! I was wondering how you got them to look like coke symbols!
This is so outrageously good…I just can’t stop grinning! I love macarons, but have never attempted making them. These are just so creative! I’m just amazed! : )
Well done you. If anyone could rise to this challenge you certainly could. Great couch potato shots too.
What fun and crazy macarons! Love your “at the game” shot, too!
You really are a macaron superstar. I think these look perfect! Glad you bucked the trend and came up with something other than popcorn.
Fantastic! They are so pretty. Too bad I’m macaron challenged and can’t make them.
These are amazing! I love the food coloring on top, it really adds to the magic of the coke bottle appearance. Maybe you could do a chapter on “junk food” macs in your next book!
Jill, your creativity is amazing! What a fabulous idea! You went all the way…and I love the whimsical shot at the end.
I’m still waiting for my Mad About Macarons book to arrive…I think my first attempt will be chocolate 🙂
Interesting post! I loved the concept of using coca cola in macarons!! And, what i’d say is that you have made the perfect, NEW-GENERATION macarons. Thanks for sharing.
Wow, another incredible macaron! So amazing how you’ve perfected the art so that you can be so experimentative with them. Can’t wait to try my hand! Yummy!
Jacqueline, you’ll see for yourself just how fun they are. You can do what you like!
These are absolutely wonderful and so inventive!
Jill, you have amazed me once again! Your creativity with the macaron is unparalleled, haha!
I must check out this site, it sounds like so much fun!
Wow, coca-cola macaroons! How neat, I love it!
Jill they are absolutely adorable. So so so creative. I was one of those who went with the buttery caramely popcorn theme (to be posted later this week) but I played with using different nuts for my shells (with – ahem – a lot of trial and error). I can’t wait until my macarons work 100% of the time so I can play with flavours like you do. Fun pics too! (PS, I need to get me some of that spray!!)