Ann Reardon

Christmas Tree Cake Macaron Tower Dessert Recipe

Instead of a simple Christmas tree cake, how about a tower of chocolate-coated macaroons in the shape of a tree! If you’re dreaming of a white christmas, this tree features macarons topped with brandy ganache, coated in white chocolate and finished with fresh raspberries and pistachio nuts. Pure indulgence.

I made this one as a thank you gift for my 11-year-old son’s teacher, who told us a few days later that it was actually the best dessert he’d ever tasted.

The recipe below makes two towers:

Macaron Shells

1 quantity of the macaron recipe for the shells, if you have not made macarons before then do watch the macaron FAQ video so that you can be sure to master them first time around.

macaron piping template dessert recipe

 

If you pipe them in the size shown on this macaron template it will make approximately 150 shells.

 

christmas tree cake macaron tower dessert

 

Brandy Ganache Recipe:

brandy ganache recipe easy christmas dessert

440g (15.52 ounces) quality white chocolate
110millilitres (3.72 fluid ounces) or 1/3 cup plus 2 Tbsp cream
30millilitres (1.01 fluid ounces) or 2 Tbsp of brandy*
1 tsp vanilla extract

*If you would prefer a different flavour of ganache see the chocolate truffle recipe post for lots of flavoured ganache recipes

You will also need a piping bag and a star shaped tip 826, if you don’t have one you can use a ziplock bag to pipe instead, instructions for this are on the caramel cupcake recipe video.

Cone

The cardboard cone that I made was 30cm (11.81 inches) tall and had a diameter of 9cm (3.54 inches) at the base.  It used 57 macaron truffles to cover it.
Non stick baking paper.
400g (14.11 ounces) white chocolate to dip the truffles
1 punnet of fresh raspberries
handful pistachio nuts

 

christmas tree cake macaron tower

by Ann Reardon How To Cook That
2013

My Cookbook

ann reardon crazy sweet creations cookbook
Stores that sell my book listed by country: http://bit.ly/ARcookbook
All recipe quantities in the book are in grams, ounces and cups.

18 Comments View Comments

  1. 1limousine

  2. Rating: 5

    Hi Ann, i was just wondering if you can’t have alcohol what else could you use for the filling? (I haven’t made this recipe ever but it looks yummy!)

    • Hi Nigel, You can leave the alcohol out just replace with 30mL of extra cream.

  3. Hi Ann. Great result, as always! I was thinking of making one of these in advance for an event, and I was wondering how long I would be able to store it for? Thanks! 🙂

    • Hi Cookie, Ann thinks you could make this up to a week prior.

  4. Thanks for the video, Ann. I did two of it this Christmas. Used red currents. 🙂
    Love, Fer.

    • ooops: I used red currants! 😉

    • Looks so yummy Fernanda.

  5. I love your baking you will always have to do this. Your the best!

  6. I all the time emailed this web site post page to all my
    contacts, as if like to read it then my contacts will
    too.

  7. You can use pretty much any liquid you want, I have used eggnog, raspberry juice, and just vanilla and they’ve all worked fine 🙂

  8. My macarons always come out flat, lumpy, and hard. I hate them. What am I doing wrong and how do I upload a picture to the site?

    • Hi Claire. The flat macaron may be from over folding the egg whites and the almond meal. The lumpiness may be from over-beating the egg whites or the almond meal was not sifted. I have made hard macaron shells before, but what I did was put the filling on them and let them absorb the moisture from the filling which gives them that chewy consistency. Hope this helps 🙂

  9. Dear Ann, thank you for posting all your recipes. You’re excellent at what you do, I subscribe to your videos.
    Is it possible for me to make the towers the day before n how am I suppose to store n transport them?
    Merry Christmas and a happy new year.

    • Hi Phyllis, It would be a good idea to assemble the towers on the serving dish or tray that you want to use. Then move with care.

  10. err i mean like compound or couveture?

    • Hi Elisabeth, using real chocolate always gives a better flavour.

  11. hai, just want to ask wat chocolate is adviced to use for ganache??

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