Christmas Red Velvet Snow Cake

Ohhhh my god. This cake was a freaking nightmare. A messy, messy nightmare. For a few weeks now I've had this image in my head of a pristine white cake that looks like it's made of snow. I kept putting off making it because I couldn't think of the right flavour cake or the right toppings. I saw Mowie's stunning Snow Cake and nearly gave up the idea entirely because I knew I couldn't make anything near as perfect. I don't know why but a few days ago I suddenly decided I had to go ahead and make this cake. I wanted it to look like it was covered in snow on the outside by topping it with coconut, with little Snowman macarons on top and a vibrant red velvet cake with cream cheese icing hiding inside. I thought it would be the perfect dessert to bring along to Christmas lunch.

Things went pretty smoothly at first; I piped the macarons and was halfway through decorating them when I realised that I had forgotten to leave half the macaron shells undecorated for the back of each snowman. I really didn't want to have creepy double sided snowmen with faces on their fronts and backs. I managed to stop myself before I drew the faces on but they still have buttons on their backs. Then came my red velvet drama. I know I should have just gone with my trustly vanilla cake recipe and adapted it with cocoa and red food colouring, but instead I used an internet recipe and it just tasted really strange. Like it was made of playdoh. I have no idea why, it was probably because of something stupid I did. I don't think I'll be able to bring it to Christmas lunch :( So unfortunately I don't have a red velvet recipe to go with this post, but I'm sure most of you will have your own favourite red velvet cake recipe that you can use.

Then came the icing drama. I was totally impatient and didn't let my cakes cool for long enough before I started icing them. You'd think I'd have learnt my lesson on this issue by now. The icing started melting down the sides of the cake and it was a total mess. So that's why the cake isn't very straight on the sides, as A described it: 'The cake has hips'. I tried to fix it by patting the coconut on top of the icing and pushing it back up the sides of the cake, but it just made things worse. After the sprinkles mess I made with my purple ombre sprinkles cake you'd think I'd never decorate the sides of my cake with toppings again. But I did. And coconut went EVERYWHERE. At least coconut doesn't bounce as much as sprinkles do when they hit the ground. But it does stick to you. I was this scary coconut covered monster by the end of it.

Things didn't get much better the next day when I went to take photographs of it. I managed to drop that poor slice of cake twice, knocking off the poor snowman's nose. I had to perform emergency snowman surgery. And then I slipped and nearly fell into the damn cake. I'm not kidding. There was a lot of swearing. I was pretty much ready to give up on the whole thing, but look at how pretty it looks! I just had to share the idea with you guys.

My favourite part is definitely the snowman macarons. I filled them with the same cream cheese icing that I covered the whole cake in, and used orange Starburst chewy lollies to make their little noses. I know they've been done before (I think my favourite version that I've seen are from MiniCuisine), but they were just the perfect topper for this cake, along with the mountains of coconut to make it look like it was covered in snow. I really do love the bright contrast of the super red cake innards against the stark white exterior. It's definitely got a little bit of wow factor for when you cut into the cake. Of course feel free to make the macarons on their own, or you could just make the cake and icing. The cake would look just as cute topped with coconut macaroons or those white ferrero chocolates. And that's it from me for this year's Christmas baking, have an fabulous holidays everyone! Eat, drink and be merry :)

Red Velvet Snow Cake with Snowman Macarons
(makes 10-12 macarons)
2 x 8-inch round cakes, use your favourite red velvet recipe (mine was a bust unfortunately)
250g cream cheese, softened
250g unsalted butter, softened
2 tsp of lemon, or adjust to taste (you can also add the zest of one lemon if you wish)
6 cups (about 750g) icing sugar, sifted
About 125g dessicated coconut

For the macarons:
100g aged egg whites (you can use fresh eggs too, just make sure they are room temperature. I always use fresh these days, and zap it in the microwave on defrost for 10 seconds)
110g almond meal, at room temperature and well sifted
200g icing sugar
50g caster sugar
Optional: 1 tsp powdered egg whites (available from The Essential Ingredient), helps to stabilise egg whites but is not necessary
To decorate: black food colouring or edible ink pen, silver cachous and orange Starburst chews

Bake the red velvet cakes and cool completely. Prepare the macarons; Line two baking sheets with baking paper. Place icing sugar in food processor and pulse for a minute to remove any lumps. Stir in almond meal and pulse for about 30 seconds to combine. Place in a large mixing bowl and set aside. Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites and egg white powder in a medium mixing bowl until the egg white powder dissolves and it reaches soft peaks. With the mixer on high speed, gradually add sugar and beat until it reaches stiff peaks.

Add meringue to your dry mixture and mix, quickly at first to break down the bubbles in the egg white (you really want to beat all the large bubbles out of the mixture, be rough!), then mix carefully as the dry mixture becomes incorporated and it starts to become shiny again. Take care not to overmix, the mixture should flow like lava and a streak of mixture spread over the surface of the rest of the mixture should disappear after about 30 seconds. Place in a piping bag and pipe snowman shapes (I piped small 2cm rounds next to 4cm rounds) on baking sheets. Tap baking sheets carefully and firmly on the benchtop a couple times to remove any large bubbles. If you wish, decorate with silver cachous for the snowman 'buttons'.

Leave to dry for at least half an hour to an hour, so that when you press the surface of one gently it does not break. This will help prevent any cracking and help the feet to form on the macs. Preheat your oven to 140-150°C (285-300°F), depending on your oven. Place on top of an overturned roasting tray or another baking sheet if your sheets are not professional grade, for better heat distribution. Bake for 15-20 minutes, depending on the size of your shells. Carefully test if the base of the shell is ready by gently lifting one and if it's still soft and sticking to the baking paper, then it needs to bake for a few minutes longer. Remove from the oven and cool on the tray for a few minutes, then gently remove from the sheet and place on a wire rack to cool completely. Decorate half the macarons with the black food colouring to draw on the faces and cut a small triangle of orange Starburst chews for the nose.

Prepare the cream cheese icing; place cream cheese and butter in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer on high until smooth and fluffy. Add lemon and icing sugar, one cup and a time, and beat until smooth. You may need to adjust the amount of icing sugar to obtain the right consistency, it should be spreadable but not runny. Spread over the top of one cake and then sandwich the other cake on top and crumb coat with more icing. Chill for about 15 mins to set the crumb coat slightly. While it is chilling, sandwich the macarons with some of the cream cheese icing and chill in the fridge in an airtight container. Cover the cake with the remaining cream cheese icing, smoothing with a spatula. Chill in the fridge for about half an hour. Place cake in a wide container/tray and carefully sprinkle coconut all over the top and sides of the cake to decorate. Top with macarons and chill in the fridge overnight. Serve at room temperature.