Embellishing Macarons

When it comes to getting creative with French macarons, bakers have moved well beyond just tinting the shells a variety of colors.

Macaron makers are getting wildly creative and the current trend is to embellish the tops with everything from melted chocolate and crushed Oreos to colorful toppings like sprinkles and Fruity Pebbles. Bakers are even painting the tops with streaks of color and edible gold.

Really there is no end to the creativity and I couldn't help but jump on the bandwagon with the macarons I made for Valentine's Day. I added a pop of violet color to the shells some black currant macarons, lines of dark chocolate to some mocha macarons and gold luster dust to some black raspberry ones.

I added all of these embellishments to already baked macaron shells. If you want to add toppings like crushed Oreos or shredded coconut, you add them to just piped macarons and bake them with the toppings attached. This way your additions will be sure to stay in place.

Macaron making is really getting fun!

For the black raspberry macarons, I tinted the batter light pink. Here are the macarons before baking.

After baking, I mixed some gold luster dust with vodka and painted the tops of all of the macarons.

I let the gold dry completely before filling them.

For the mocha macarons, I sorted the macarons into pairs and set them all out on parchment. Then I put some tempered melted dark chocolate in a disposable pastry bag and clipped a very small bit off of the tip. Then I simply piped lines off chocolate across all of the shells. I let the chocolate set before filling them. 

Filled mocha macarons.

Here's a closeup of the black currant macarons. Decorating these shells was really easy. I made a paint using a few teaspoons of vodka and a small amount of violet gel coloring. Then I added some of the paint to the tops of the shells and let them dry completely before assembling.