Hello Kitty Passion Fruit SMBC Macarons

I've seen so many cute macarons and was really tempted to give them a try. Didn't have time to make the template and doing it freehand would likely be a fail. Since I have some time now, I made many many templates, but for a beginner, I decided to do Hello Kitty since it's only one main colour and the rest can be drawn using edible colour markers.

Trust me when I say I drew using a template, though my Hello Kitty looked a bit cross eyed, not really very artistically inclined. I'll try harder next time.

I made passionfruit swiss meringue buttercream to fill the macarons. They're so cute, I think it's worth the effort. Am dying to try either Christmas tree or keroppi next. 

Here's my a little bit cross eyed kitties. I used a template, I really did. 

This is the template I made for making the macarons, basically, I found the image and used word to make the template. Pipe the macarons over the template placed under the baking paper.

For the macaron shells

I used the same recipe for the red Velvet macarons but I omitted the colouring. 

The temperature I set to make the macarons was also much lower, at 130 degrees for about 18-20 minutes. 

I made the buttercream after I was sure the macarons were successful. This was rather quick, a swiss meringue passion fruit buttercream. 

For the passion fruit SMBC 

150g unsalted butter at room temperature

110g caster sugar

100g egg white

4 tbsp passion fruit curd

1. Whisk the egg white and sugar in a metal bowl and over a pot of simmering water. 

2. When all the sugar has dissolved or when the egg white mixture reaches 70 degrees, transfer to a mixer and whisk till stiff peak and the mixture is cooled.

3. Add cubed butter a bit at a time until all the butter has been incorporated.

5. Fold in the passion fruit curd.

If the SMBC is too soft, chill for about 20 minute before use.

There, the passion fruit is really fragrant. 

There, all the templates I managed to make. Hope I use them soon.