Chocolate...Drops?

It's been a while since my last (and first) attempt at making macarons, and I've been raring to have another go since I received a new set of piping tips off eBay. So, I aged the egg whites, decided on a recipe (chocolate macarons with chocolate ginger cream cheese filling) and set off on my new mac-adventure! 

Since it was only my second attempt, I thought I'd stick with what I used before, and only tweak it a bit, instead making it all up on the spot like I sometimes do. So, I dutifully followed the same Serious Eats recipe I used the first time, swapping out 50 grams of icing sugar for 50 grams of dark chocolate. That's when things went downhill. 

The mixture smelt great, but looked somewhat solid...In fact, the circles I'd piped out reminder me of another kind of solid...

This little guy was saved from the op-shop, only be to subjected to this indignity. I bet he wished he was in the sticky maw of some chubby little kid right now. 

URGHHH! 

Still, it was getting late, I was getting grumpy, so I set them aside to 'cure' for a couple of hours, all the time crossing my fingers and hoping they would somehow magically smooth out and turn into perfect little discs. My kitchen was starting to resemble a midden.

After curing, into the oven they went (without their equine companion), for 8 minutes.

And look, no FEET! Where are the bloody feet? They look more like little acorn caps! Cracked, ploppy acorn caps. Whatever! I needed some sugar anyway, so I charged ahead with the filling. If anyone is interested, it's 100 grams of cream cheese, 3 tablespoons cocoa, 75 grams icing sugar and a couple of teaspoons of ground ginger, all mixed together.

Look at them! Little chocolate acorn caps. They didn't actually taste as disgusting as they looked though, so I guess it was worth it after all. The heavy batter actually made them taste like little round brownies, while the ginger adds a bit of spice to even out the sweetness. 

I wonder if I can get away with describing them as 'rustic' or 'shabby-chic' macarons?