Strawberry Cheesecake Icecream and Strawberry HolyBasil Macarons

My friend’s 3 year old, quite naturally, goes on and on and on about pink all the time and the other day ‘S’ suddenly came up with this weird question…”Are girls crazy about pink from the day they are born or are they taught to like pink or is it just butterfly (as he fondly calls her)?”. Probably true or maybe not! Nonetheless the fact is, toddler or an adult, girls always go crazy over pink and I am no exception. I adore everything pink… pink roses, pink dress, pink shoes, pink pen and even the pink limo that goes past our street every now and then. Every girl definately owns at the least one t-shirt in either a (or all...no surprises here) baby pink, cherry blossom pink, carnation pink, shocking pink... One of the many advantages of owning anything pink is, none of the boys will ever think of stealing borrowing them because pink is officially a girl's color!This month Sarah of Maison Cupcake is hosting the Monthly Mingle and the theme is Think Pink. I made this luscious Pink strawberry cheesecake icecream and some Pink strawberry & holy basil macarons to go with it.  Yes, you read it right, Strawberry and Basil, very unusual and it so totally works!
I am also sending these Strawberry Basil macarons to MacTweets Jamie and Deeba.

Strawberry Cheesecake Icecream (adapted from not quite nigella)

Ingredients

600ml heavy cream

150g icing sugar, sifted

250g mascarpone

250g strawberries hulled and halved

3 tbsp icing sugar 

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1tbsp Creme de Fraise
Method:
Whiz the washed and hulled strawberries in a processor along with balsamic vinegar, strawberry liquer and 3 tablespoons of icing sugar. Whip cream and icing sugar until soft peaks form (watch to ensure that the firm peak stage is not reached). Add the mascarpone and beat until incorporated. Mix this with the strawberry liquid and then freeze in your ice cream maker according the manufacturer's instructions. 

Strawberry Basil Macarons

Ingredients

30g almond meal
58g powdered sugar
36g aged egg whites
18g caster sugar
pinch salt
pinch egg white powder
5g strawberry powder
3-4 fresh basil leaves
Method:
Preheat oven to 140C.
Line two baking sheets with silicone sheet. Pulse the Icing sugar with the almond powder, food colour, strawberry powder& basil leaves in a processor. Sieve this & set aside. Beat the egg whites until foamy and add the granulated sugar, whites powder. Beat until very stiff and firm. Carefully fold the dry ingredients, in two batches, into the beaten egg whites with a flexible rubber spatula. When the mixture is just smooth and there are no streaks of egg white, stop folding. The mixture should be thick and fall in ribbons when lifted. Fill a piping bag with this and pipe the batter on the parchment-lined baking sheets in 1″ circles evenly spaced apart. Tap the baking sheet a few times firmly on the counter top to flatten the macarons, then rest to form a skin for about an hour. Bake them for 12-15 minutes depending on size. Once done, transfer them to a cooling rack.

I have used leftover vanilla buttercream recipe from here for sandwiching the macarons.