Macarons can be decorated in countless ways by:
- painting
- drawing
- buttercream frosting
- caramel drizzle
- chocolate drizzle
- sprinkles
- coffee granules
- cookie crumbs
Sprinkles
Macarons can be decorated with sprinkles right after piping the batter and removing the air bubbles.
Since the batter is sticky while it’s awaiting drying, the sprinkles will adhere to the macaron batter.
Only put a few sprinkles on the macaron, and they should be quite small. Large sprinkles have the risk of melting in the oven and ruining the macaron shells.
Coffee or Cookie Crumbs
You can decorate macarons with coffee or cookie crumbs by sprinkling a couple of granules on the macaron as soon as they are done piping and have had the air bubbles removed. The cookie crumbs and coffee will stick well to the macaron batter.
You can also put 1 tbsp of coffee or cookie crumbs directly into the dry ingredients when making macaron batter. This will give the macaron shells a hint of flavor.
Painting
To decorate macarons with paint, you can use:
Once you have selected the type of coloring you want to decorate your macarons with, add only a couple of drops of almond extract.
Adding the almond extract thins out the coloring to be able to use it to paint on the macaron.
You’ll also need a food grade paint brush to paint the coloring on the macaron.
Dip the bristles into the paint and then gently put the paint on the macaron. The shells are prone to damaging easily, so don’t use too much force to put the pain on the macaron.
You can use a couple of colors to really decorate the macaron beautifully.
Edible Marker
To decorate macarons with a marker, you’ll want to use a marker that is food grade.
Use an edible marker to create cool macaron designs to really enhance the look of your macarons.
You can use different colors of markers to color coordinate a theme to your macarons. You can also use markers for color contrast against the color of your macaron.
Another way to draw on macarons is by writing special words on your macarons. You can write anything from “Happy Birthday” to “Baby” to give them a bit of a special look to them.
Buttercream or Royal Icing
To decorate your macarons with buttercream or royal icing, you’ll want to make sure your icing is fairly stiff. You want the icing to be able to hold its shape on the macaron.
Select the piping tip you want to use. If you want to do some writing or thin lines, you’ll want to select tip #2.
You can pipe the icing directly on the macaron. For buttercream icing, you’ll want to keep the macarons separated from each other. The icing will not harden like royal icing will.
You can pipe designs such as flowers, leaves, trees, etc. to add decoration to your macarons.
Caramel or Chocolate drizzle
To add caramel or chocolate drizzle, place your macarons on a large plate. Put the caramel or chocolate into a piping bag, fitted with #2 piping tip. The flow will come fast, you won’t even need to squish the bag for the flow to come out. Make one line on 1 half of the macaron. Continue making 2 more lines that criss cross a little to have an elastic band look to it.
You can add nuts or sprinkles to the drizzle to make it a little more special.
