Today we are celebrating Pancake Yancake’s second birthday! As a major milestone, we decided to double the fun, meaning double the cake! To start the morning with a bang, Crystal was in charge of none other than pancakes for breakfast. And for post-dinner dessert, well that was up to me. Deciding to incorporate our love for macarons and to complement Crystal’s choice of lemon for today’s birthday breakfast, I concocted this coconut lime macaron ice box cake as a perfectly fitting birthday dessert. I’ve made ice box cakes in the past the short-cut way with store-bought graham crackers, pudding mix, and Cool Whip, but for a special occasion like today, only scratch-made was gonna cut it. Thankfully I planned ahead though and made the macaron shells and lime curd the day before, so come party time all I had to do was whip coconut cream, layer my cake, and let it chill (while I chilled, too!). So here’s to a great two years of Pancake Yancake adventures and hopefully many more birthdays to come!

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Coconut Lime Macaron Ice Box Cake

For the macaron shells:

Makes 48

Ingredients

• 100g whole almonds
• 120g (1 cup) powdered sugar
• ¼ cup granulated sugar
• 3 large egg whites (use the yolks for the lime curd!)

Directions

1. In a food processor, grind the almonds into almond meal. Sift the almond meal and powdered sugar into a large bowl. Set aside.
2. With an electric mixer, beat the egg whites till they are foamy. Slowly stream in the granulated sugar and continue to beat till stiff peaks are achieved. Transfer the beaten egg whites to a larger bowl.
3. In three portions, fold the almond-powdered sugar mixture into the egg whites. Be careful not to overmix!
4. Pipe the macaron batter onto a parchment lined baking sheet in ~2” diameter circles.
5. Allow the macarons to “dry” so a skin develops over the tops. (You should be able to touch the top without it sticking to you. Unfortunately, whenever I try to make macarons in SoFlo though, this takes forever (I’m convinced it’s the humidity), and I usually lose patience…)
6. Bake for ~12 minutes. Allow to cool completely before removing from tray.

For the lime curd:

Ingredients

• 1 large egg
• 3 large egg yolks
• ¼ cup granulated sugar
• Pinch of salt
• Juice and zest of 2 limes (~⅓ cup juice)

Directions

1. Whisk together the egg, yolks, sugar, and salt. Set aside.
2. In a small saucepan, bring the lime juice to a simmer. Whisk the hot juice into the yolk mixture in a slow stream.
3. Transfer the tempered egg mixture back into the saucepan and cook on medium low heat, stirring constantly, until the curd reaches a thick, pudding-like consistency.
4. Pour the curd into a heat-proof bowl and mix in the lime zest. Chill before using in the coconut lime mousse.

For the coconut lime mousse:

Ingredients

• 14 oz. coconut cream, refrigerated overnight
• ⅔ cup powdered sugar
• 1 batch coconut lime curd (see recipe above)

Directions

1. First, chill a large mixing bowl and whisk attachments for 2 minutes in the freezer.
2. Remove the coconut cream from the fridge and scrape out all of the thick cream on top into the chilled bowl. (There may be a little bit of liquid on the bottom so make sure to leave that behind.)
3. Beat the coconut cream and powdered sugar until stiff peaks form.
4. Transfer the lime curd into a large bowl and gently fold in one third of the whipped coconut cream. In two more additions, fold in the remaining whipped coconut cream. Use immediately to assemble the cake.

To assemble the ice box cake:

1. Layer the macaron shells and coconut lime mousse in a rectangular dish with four layers of twelve macarons each and three layers of mousse, starting and ending with macarons.
2. Refrigerate for 3 hours before indulging in all your hard work!