A Dior (?) Cake, or Discussing Luxury with Teenagers !

This cake is the result of a discussion. It all started when we decided to go on "soldes" (sales). My daughter C. said: "Mummy...", with this typical soothing voice, announcer of -I will ask you for something you are not quite going to like.. "Can you buy me a Vuitton or Dior bag?"

My typical, firm answer followed: "We have already discussed this..It is absolutely out of the question, and completely ridiculous....teenagers don't go around in Dior bags..."

"But ALL the girls carry Vuitton bags to school" (and here, by miracle, her sister M. agreed!)

I questioned the arithmetic accuracy of that claim...and continued, once again, trying to make her reflect on the issue: the number of teenagers in the world that don't have enough to eat (which she found convincing for only ten seconds!) Briefly, some minutes later, I was dragging two pouting teenagers around Parisian streets, till we got to the first store (H&M, Zara type) and there with the purchase of the first € 15 T-shirt, "the sun shone on us again"...

Back home, to keep these teenagers busy, we decided to have fun with this concept of luxury, creating for ourselves, and at no extra cost, a "Dior" cake, one that would be fit of a Dior window....

I had suggested a mix of berries, but my daughters decided it had to be only raspberries, because they are "chicissime" (the most "chic"), and then it had to be a macaron cake...because the macaron is the symbol of French refinement. Inside, my family's favorite filling: pastry cream combined with whipped cream...AND the final touch: spraying the macaron with nacre color, to make it look almost like a pearl.... The "girly" touch? the marshmallows on top....!

The girls helped me to assemble the cake...et oui, making the macaron is still mommy's job (see photos in the recipe section)...and in the photo session....(find it also below)

The result? a real, edible luxury item !!

Enjoy!

How to make macaron? See my basic recipe here
Then, pipe it as you see in the photo...For that, draw a circle of the desired size (here, 18cm), on parchment paper.

After baking according to instructions, spray with nacre coloring. 

For the pastry cream, follow this recipe here

Then, whisk 250gr of cream into a "soft" Chantilly (I mean not so firm!) The problem is combining both creams! First, the pastry cream has to be cold! and that means it will be a bit too hard...so "loosen" the cream with the whisk, add to it, a small quantity of your Chantilly...combine well. Then add the rest of the Chantilly with big, whisking motions, just a few times if not you will lose texture! Refrigerate!

A short time before serving, pipe the cream, making the same concentric circle like for the macaron. Arrange all the berries around the border, and some in the center. Put the other macaron on top! Decorate with some more raspberries and marshmallows. I used two little boxes of raspberries here....Refrigerate again, till the moment of serving...