Strawberry and Vanilla Macaron Trifle -Mac Tweets January Challenge

As soon as I saw the gorgeous cover of this issue of Donna Hay I knew I had to make that trifle.  And perfect timing because our  first Mactweets challenge 2011 is to : integrate your macarons into any dessert, making it a new part of an old favorite, or turn your macarons into your favorite dessert, inspired in flavor, texture, color.  I don't know about you, but growing up jello was part of my food pyramid, and of course the whipped cream just fulfilled the dairy requirement !  Seriously, I don't make a lot of jello, as a matter of fact I can't remember the last time I made any. But really when you look at this magazine cover are you not inspired to make this delectable dessert ?

Doesn't it just look a light and pretty after all those cookies, stollens, and chocolate from the holidays ?  And doesn't it just look like a lovely choice for Valentine's Day too ?  And for those of you who are not obsessed with making the perfect macaron-you can even use (quelle horreur) store bought macarons.

Pretty feet ! Thank you Deeba

I usually make my macarons from Hisako Ogita's book I ♥ Macarons. But today I decided to experiment and use a recipe from a fellow blogger who always inspires me with her writings, photography and food-Deeba over at Passionate About Baking.  Check out her blog, you'll see why she is so inspirational !

I made the vanilla macarons using Deeba's recipe.  I followed Donna Hay's recipe for the jello, added more strawberries than the recipe called for, because I'm of the belief you can never have too many strawberries and I filled my macarons with mascarpone mixed with a touch of balsamic vinegar (the berries love balsamic vinegar), and topped everything with whipped cream and more berries .  This is a  perfect dessert for today-the sun is shining,  teasing me with thoughts of warmer weather and gardening. 

Strawberry and Vanilla Macaron Trifle

You can find the original recipe from Donna Hay here.

For the Macarons recipe-head over to Deeba's blog .

Mascarpone filling:

8 ounces of Mascarpone cheese

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

Mix together until smooth and fill a pastry bag for piping onto the macarons.

Whipped Cream Filling

16 ounces of whipping cream

1/4 cup caster sugar

2 Tablespoons vanilla extract

Add all ingredients to your mixing bowl and using the whisk attachment , whisk on high until peaks are just starting to firm up.

Head over to Mac Tweets and see what everyone else did this month.