Mac Attack 9 - Have I Told You Lately That I Love You

Have I Told You Lately that I love you?Have I told you there's no one else above you?

Fill my heart with gladness, take away all my sadness,Ease my troubles, that's what you do.

For the morning sun in all it's glory,Meets the day with hope and comfort too,You fill my life with laughter, somehow you make it better,Ease my troubles, that's what you do.

There's a love less defined,And it's yours and it's mine,Like the sun.And at the end of the day,We should give thanks and pray,To The One, to The One.

For this month the  Mac Attack challenge was to take your  favorite song and bake it into a macaron !  Well I absolutely love Van Morrison and one of my all time favorite songs is Have I Told You Lately That I Love You. 

With that said, I dedicate this month's challenge to the love of my life-and I am forever grateful and so very happy that he decided to marry me a 2nd time ! (Long romantic story involves long marriage,short divorce and married again in Tasmania -December 10,2009-you can check out wedding pictures here )

I used my new  go to book for macarons  " I Love Macarons" by Hisako Ogita and made the basic vanilla macaron recipe adding a touch of burgundy food coloring gel until I got the shade of pink I wanted.  I made the heart design following the brief instructions in the book  and came up with my own design. I made 2 small circles and pulled  a thin tail from the top center of the circles down to the tip to form the tail of the heart-trust me it was trial and error, with lots of errors !  But I'm happy with the results .  I then used the recipe below and filled them with the ganache. Bon Appetit !

White Chocolate Ganache with Cherry Brandy

Servings: Makes about 1 1/2 cups

10 ounces premium-quality white chocolate, finely chopped
2/3 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature and cut into 3 pieces
3-4 Tablespoons Cherry Brandy (from St George Spirits-love them !)

1. Put the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl.
2. Bring the heavy cream to a boil, then pour it over the chocolate. Working with a whisk or spatula, gently stir the chocolate and cream together. When the ganache is smooth, stir in the butter and cherry brandy.
3. Cool the ganache by putting the bowl in a larger bowl filled with ice cubes and cold water. Stir almost constantly, so it doesn't harden; when the ganache is thick enough to pipe and stay where it's piped, spoon it into the pastry bag and fill the macarons