Whizz together the icing sugar and almonds in a food processor for 2 minutes on a high speed. Sieve the icing sugar and ground almonds into a large bowl and leave to one side – its VERY important to sieve them! Discard any lumps.
Using an electric whisk, whisk up the egg whites until they’re thick and foamy and starting to form soft peaks – gradually add the caster sugar 1tsp at a time like you would a meringue, whisking in-between each addition fully, until all of the caster sugar is incorporated.
Once incorporated continue to whisk for 1-2 minutes, and start adding your food colouring! I used red! Keep on whisking for 3-4 minutes until its smooth and light!
Once finished, fold the mixture into the sugar/almond mix – try to be gentle but make sure its all incorporated well.
Using a piping bag and a small round nozzle, pipe the macarons either onto a macaron mat, or a lined baking tray with parchment paper underneath! Make circles, hearts, or whatever!
Leave them at least an inch apart from each other.
Tap the trays onto the work surface several times so that you knock out the air bubbles and sprinkle on a sprinkles that you're using. Leave the macarons on the side for ONE HOUR so that a skin is formed – this stage is important.
Preheat the oven to 130C and bake the macarons for 16-20 minutes until they have risen to have their “feet” and are starting to peel away from the tray – leave them to cool fully before trying to remove them!
Once the shells have cooled – remove carefully from your trays and line them up – make your filling. Cream together the butter and icing sugar until smooth and supple, and add in a touch of red food colouring to get a pink colour!
Once dry, pipe or spread on some of the buttercream of your choice onto half of the shells and sandwich the macaron shells together!
Notes
I used an amazing macaron mat to make these which I highly recommend! - They have shapes already on them for the hearts, or circles, and they stick to a baking tray well.
I used Sugarflair red extra to get such an amazing colour, and you need so little. If you use something as thick as sugar flair, take a spoonful of the meringue and mix it together to loosen the colouring, and then mix into the meringue as stated in the recipe.
You could easily use a flavoured icing sugar in this recipe, or even a nice flavouring!
The macarons last for up to 7 days in an airtight container in the refrigerator!
If they are lumpy, you haven't blitzed the sugar and almonds enough, or haven't mixed it well enough. If the mixture is incredibly runny, you've over mixed.