More Cakes of Legend: Birthday Cake(s) No 3 for Birthday No 9

This is the final birthday cake(s) for this Jorge's 9th birthday... he requested macarons for the cake for this part.. three types: salted caramel, passionfruit and raspberry - and so he got his wish.

Up till 2am last night, and cursing my oven.. wishing I had a new one, only to remember that I do have one that's been sitting in our living room for two years now..  I have given myself till Christmas to have it installed.

Macarons  piled high on a plate were divine!  But I wasn't completely happy with the results. 
 I had some lopsided problems which I suspected was due to my oven, and confirmed via late night research..
 Recipes for macarons are as per my previous posting on salted caramel macarons.  Raspberry ganache was made with white chocolate, cream and fresh raspberrries in double boiler till melted, chilled, then whipped.  Passionfruit filling is another story: passionfruit curd with whipped cream.. need to work on this one. 
The party was a hit:  Halloween inspired and involved children dressing up and visiting five houses in neighbourhood... Glad I live in Alice Springs.  There were more activities: Piñata, nerf gun trials, brandy, soccer, etcc and of course pizza, cooked in pizza oven on sourdough bread.  All children were happy, and I am exhausted. Good night!

Macarons..

I am joining the growing number of people pre-occuppied with French Macarons.  Now, I have seen them in pictures and on television, and have now attempted them three times. See below:

I have not been happy with any of these attempts, although the second picture (third attempt), was much more successful (next time I will pipe the filling onto the macaron. )  I used this recipe from 'my food geek' which I highly recommend as it uses Italian meringue which seems to give more lift to the macarons.  The macarons I made were raspberry and white chocolate, and orange and chocolate.. However, living in Alice Springs, I am still not sure what they should taste like, ie. have I been successful.. I need to compare them with something other than an image...  I need to know whether or not the macaron  should be a bit chewy, or dry and crunchy... and how important is that gloss, not to mention colour.

Well... in a fortnight I am going to, not to Paris, but to Melbourne (for work), and I have set myself the task and seeking out, and buying, and tasting the best macaron that Melbourne can provide - and taking photos of course.