Gingerbread Man Macarons with Gingerbread Cookie Dough Buttercream

One baking blog I've been following for some time is Raspberri Cupcakes.  Everything she does is amazing, but I especially love her crazily shaped macarons.  She's done all kinds of animals, ice cream cones, shamrocks, presents, hearts and more.  She also writes about a delicious-sounding cookie dough buttercream which I was keen to use in a macaron.  One of my most reliable and delicious cookie recipes is my Gingerbread Cookie Dough recipe (I'm sure I'll put it up here sooner or later).  Whenever I make them I have to force myself to stop eating the raw dough.  So, I had a go at combining the cookie dough buttercream with my gingerbread cookie recipe to put together these ultra cute Gingerbread Man Macarons with Gingerbread Cookie Dough Buttercream.

I used my basic macaron shell recipe to make the gingerbread men.  I meant to colour the shells with Parisian Browning Essence, except I forgot to add it to the sugar (second time this week I've done that!!).  I didn't want to stuff up my egg whites by adding too much liquid, so I just put in a few drops of the browning essence meaning I didn't get as deep a brown as I was hoping for.

It was my first time piping shapes, so I used a slightly smaller nozzle on my piping bag and drew some gingerbread man outlines on my baking paper.  I ended up undermixing my batter which made my men a little bumpy, but at least they all held their shape.

Gingerbread Cookie Dough Buttercream

Adapted from Raspberri Cupcakes

55g butter, cubed and softened
6 tbs firmly packed brown sugar
135g plain flour
180g sweetened condensed milk
1/4 tsp vanilla essence
1 - 2 tsp ginger (to taste)
2 tbs golden syrup
1/2 cup icing sugar

Beat the butter and brown sugar in a mixer until light and fluffy.  Add remaining ingredients and mix for 3-4 minutes until well combined.  Leave in the fridge to set for 20 minutes or so.

Be sure to not add garam masala to your buttercream instead of ginger like I did...  My fault for seeing the "G" on the packet and assuming I had the right spice.  I scraped as much as I could out of the mixture, but the slightly strange spicy flavour tells me that I didn't quite get it all out.  It's still a delicious buttercream and tastes just like the bits of cookie dough I nibble on whenever I make Gingerbread Cookies.  The decorations are done with a very basic royal icing made of egg white and icing sugar mixed together until a stiff consistency is reached.

They're a little too cute to eat!  Fortunately I made some round macarons too, so I can indulge on those instead of beheading one of my little macaron men.