Rainbow Macarons

Hello friends! Today I will show you how to make these super fun and cute Rainbow Macarons.

They are filled with a Lucky Charms Buttercream. Also check out the rainbow template available below, you can download it, print it, and place under your mat or parchment paper, to pipe your own rainbows!

Make sure to watch the video on this page or on YouTube, to see exactly how to make the batter, and how to pipe the Rainbow Macarons!

Rainbow Template for Macarons

Let’s start with the rainbow template.

Make sure to download and print both templates below. It is a very small difference, but the clouds on either sides are not the same, so if you pipe only one type of rainbows, they aren’t going to match later when you try to form the macaron sandwiches.

The templates are the same, but one is flipped horizontally, which means you will be able to match the shells.

How to pipe Rainbow Macarons

I made all the different colors for these macarons from the same batch.

Make sure to leave the piping bags ready and lined with the tips you will use before starting. Specially when making shapes, you want to be organized. Have the template ready, all tools and materials at hand, before you can begin.

To make the different colors from the same batch, all you have to do is add the dry ingredients, almond flour and powdered sugar, to the stiff meringue.

Fold just until you see no more dry ingredients.

Then split the batter between 4 different bowls. You will need more batter for the white portion, since the clouds are bigger than the rest of the colorful parts of the rainbow.

Keep all batters covered while you work with one at a time.

Stir each until the perfect consistency is achieved, and then transfer them to a piping bag.

You can find links for my piping bags, bag ties, and other tools I use here.

Once all batters are ready, inside the piping bags, you can start piping.

For the white batter (clouds) I used tip number 8. For the pink color I used tip number 4, for the yellow I used tip number 5, and finally for the blue batter I used tip number 6.

I like to begin by piping the thinest part of the rainbow, the pink section.

Then move on to the yellow part, then the blue.

Lastly, pipe the clouds.

Use a toothpick to smooth out the batter and drag it to the outlines to form a more defined shape. And bang the trays against the counter or against the palm of your hand, to release any air bubbles and also to help smooth out the batter.

I made these Rainbow Macarons to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day! As you can see above.

And I also made Shamrock Macarons. I will post the recipes for the Gold Macarons and the Pot of Gold Macarons soon!

In case you are looking for more St. Patrick’s Day Macarons, I have also published a Guinness Macaron recipe last year!

To learn more about macarons, check out Macaron School, I post articles about troubleshooting, the science behind the meringue, guides for beginners, many tips and tricks, and more information you may find very helpful in your macaron journey.

And for the full list of macaron flavors, please click here.

Thank you so much for reading today’s post. If you make these Rainbow Macarons tag me on instagram or leave a comment below! I love hearing from you!

Rainbow Macarons

Camila Hurst

Rainbow Macarons filled with Lucky Charms Buttercream, with a template available to download, print, and place under your mat or parchment paper to pipe the rainbows.

5 from 1 vote

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 3 hours hrs

Cook Time 40 minutes mins

Total Time 3 hours hrs 40 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 18 macarons

Calories 155 kcal

Ingredients

  

Macaron Shells

• 100 grams egg whites
• 100 grams granulated sugar
• 105 grams almond flour
• 105 grams powdered sugar
• Pink blue, and yellow food coloring

Lucky Charms Buttercream

• 1 cup Lucky Charms cereal
• 6 tbsp unsalted butter softened 85 grams
• 1 1/2 to 2 cups confectioners’ sugar sifted 187 to 240 grams
• 1/2 -1 tbsp milk as necessary*

Instructions

 

Macaron shells

• Before you start, get all of the ingredients ready. Prepare 4 piping bags fitted with round tips. I used a tip number 8 for the clouds, a tip number 6 for the blue part of the rainbow, a tip number 5 for the yellow part of the rainbow, and a tip number 4 for the pink part of the rainbow.
• Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mat, place the printable template under the mat. Remember to print both sides of the template, because the clouds are slightly different, so you will need the reverse side in order to be able to match the shells later.
• Measure out all of the ingredients. Sift the powdered sugar and almond flour. Set it aside.
• Place a bowl over a pan with barely simmering water. Add the sugar and egg whites to the bowl and whisk the mixture until the sugar is completely melted. It will take a couple of minutes. You can test by touching the mixture between your fingers, and if you feel any sugar granules just keep whisking the mixture over the water bath.
• Make sure the bottom of the bowl isn’t touching the simmering water because you don’t want the whites to cook.
• Also, don’t overheat the sugar syrup, this may cause issues down the line, such as wrinkly macarons.
• Transfer the syrup to the bowl of a stand mixer.
• With the whisk attachment, start whisking the syrup on low for about 30 seconds, then gradually start increasing speed to medium or to medium-high and whisk for a few minutes until stiff peaks are formed. Best way to check this is to keep your eye on the whites. Once they get glossy and you start seeing streaks formed by the whisk, it might be time to stop.
• Whip until stiff peaks have formed. When you pull your whisk up, the peak should be stiff and shooting straight up, with possibly a slight bend at the top, but not bending down to the side.
• Pour the sifted powdered sugar and almond flour into the stiff meringue.
• Start folding gently forming a letter J with a spatula.
• As soon as you see no more dry ingredients in the meringue, stop stirring. Divide the batter between four different bowls. You will need more batter for the clouds, so reserve a larger amount for the white batter.
• Work with one bowl at a time, leaving the other ones covered meanwhile.
• To the first batter I didn’t add any food coloring, as this would be the batter dedicated to piping the clouds. Fold the batter until the perfect consistency is achieved. The batter should be flowing slowly and effortlessly off the spatula, you should be able to pick up some batter with the spatula and draw several figure 8s with the batter that’s flowing, without having the batter break up. And even after the batter breaks up, it should still continue to flow off the spatula slowly.
• It might be a bit difficult to make the figure 8 with just a little bit of batter, so just make sure the batter is running off the spatula. Watch the video on this page or on Youtube, which will show you better what the consistency is supposed to be like.

There’s another test you can do. I call it the Teaspoon test.
• Grab a teaspoon of batter and spoon onto the parchment paper or silicon mat. Wait a minute to see how it behaves.If the batter stays stiff, forming a point and doesn’t spread out, fold a little bit more, about 3 folds.Test again.
• Once the batter spreads out a bit and starts to look glossy and smooth on top, on the parchment paper, it’s ready.
• You don’t want your batter to be too runny either. So be careful not to over-mix. It’s always best to under-mix and test several times until the proper consistency has been achieved.
• When you hold the spatula with batter on top of the bowl and the batter falls off the spatula slowly but effortlessly the batter is ready. The batter will keep flowing off the spatula non-stop, but not too quickly.
• Once the first batter (white) achieves the perfect consistency, transfer it to one of the prepared piping bags fitted with tip number 8. Secure the top with a tie, so the batter doesn’t scape while piping, and to keep the batter from drying out while you work with the remaining batter. Set the piping bag aside.
• Now, it’s time to work with the second batter. To this batter I added blue food coloring, then fold until the perfect consistency is achieved, like I’ve explained above.
• Transfer the batter to another piping bag fitted with a number 6 tip. And secure the top with a tie.
• Next up was the pink batter, so I added a little pink food coloring and folded the batter until the perfect consistency was achieved, and then transferred it to a piping bag fitted with a number 4 tip.
• Now move on to the final batter, the yellow color. Add food coloring and fold until the perfect consistency has been achieved.
• Transfer the yellow batter to a piping bag fitted with a number 5 tip.

Piping the rainbows

• I like to begin piping the bottom layer of the rainbow, which is pink.
• Next, pipe the middle layer, which is yellow, and then the blue layer.
• Lastly, pipe the clouds.
• Use a toothpick to smooth out the batter and drag it out to the outlines.
Tap the trays against the counter or against the palm of your hand to release any air bubbles constantly while piping, so this way the batter will spread out nicely and the bits where you’ve applied the toothpick will smooth out.
• And also use the toothpick to pop any remaining air bubbles on the surface of the shells again if necessary.
• Continue to pipe all the macarons.
• After some practice you can begin piping two or three at a time, piping the pink layers of a couple of rainbows first, then moving on to the yellow, then the blue layers, and finally the clouds.
• Only do this once you are faster at piping, otherwise the batter will start to dry out and you won’t be able to use a toothpick to spread it out, or obtain a smooth shell.
• Remove the template from underneath the mat right after piping, this way the shells won't be dry enough that they will crack when you lift the mat up.
• Let the trays sit for a while so the shells will dry out a little bit. I usually leave about 20-40 minutes, depending on how humid the day is. Drying time will also depend on the consistency of the meringue, on how much you’ve folded the batter, and on how much food coloring you’ve added.
• You’ll know they’re ready when you gently touch the surface of a macaron and it seems dry, and doesn’t stick to your finger.
• Pre-heat the oven to 300°F.
• Bake one tray at a time.
• Bake for 5 minutes, rotate tray.
• Bake for 5 more minutes. Rotate again.
• In the last 5 minutes of baking, place a piece of foil over the macarons, to make sure they don’t brown too much.
• I bake each tray for about 15 minutes.
• When baked, the macarons will have a deeper color and formed feet. If you try to move a macaron, it shouldn’t feel jiggly. If the macaron is still jiggly, keep baking.
• Remove from the oven and bake the other tray.
• Let the macarons cool down before proceeding with the filling.

Lucky Charms Buttercream

• Place the Lucky Charms cereal in a food processor and process until fine.
• Sift it and set aside. Discard the larger parts that stayed in the sifter.
• Cream the butter at medium speed in the bowl of an electric mixer for about 1 minute. With the mixer off, add all of the powdered sugar and the powdered lucky charms to the bowl.
• Once the ingredients are incorporated, turn the speed to medium and cream for 1-2 minutes until very fluffy.
• If necessary, add the milk. Only add 1/2 tablespoon of milk at first. Sometimes you may find that the consistency of the buttercream is already perfect and doesn’t need any more liquid. If the buttercream seems too stiff, add a bit more of milk as necessary. If the buttercream seems too runny, add more sifted powdered sugar until you obtain a firm, but smooth and creamy consistency.
• It’s a good idea to soak the milk in Lucky charms cereal before adding it to the frosting, as it will provide an extra Lucky Charms taste to the buttercream.
• Add food coloring if you want to.
• Place the frosting in a piping bag fitted with a small round tip.

To assemble

• Pipe some buttercream on the bottom of each rainbow shell, then top with another shell.

Storage

• The macarons will store nicely for up to 5 days in the fridge and in the freezer for up to 1 month.

Notes

Milk: you can soak the milk in cereal before adding to the buttercream for an added Lucky Charms flavor to the frosting.

Egg White Powder: I am not using egg white powder for this recipe because the weather is super dry lately, and as soon as I pipe the macarons they have been drying out. And specially when making shapes, you want the batter to not be so dry or stiff, because you will need to use a toothpick to help it smooth out to the edges of the outlines of the template you’re using.

Vinegar: Before starting make sure to wipe down the bowls, whisks, silicone mats and everything you are going to use with vinegar, to avoid any grease particles of coming into contact with the meringue and batter.

Food coloring: Make sure to use gel food coloring, not liquid. For all the colors here I used Americolor. If you are a beginner macaron baker, I recommend going easy on the food coloring, as it can alter your batter a lot, and it can take extra mixing time, specially if you continue to add the food coloring as you do the macaronage. Here is my guide to how to obtain vibrant colors, including the brands of food coloring I prefer.

Scale: Please use a scale when measuring the ingredients for accuracy.

Macaron amount: it will vary greatly depending on how big you pipe the shells, and on how runny or thick the batter is.

Baking time/temperature: Baking time and temperature will vary according to your own oven. I recommend experimenting with your oven to find out the best time, temperature, position of the baking tray.

Oven thermometer: Make sure to have an oven thermometer to bake macarons. It’s one of the most important things about making macarons. Home ovens aren’t accurate at all at telling the temperature, and even a slight 5 degree difference can make or break your whole batch.

Tray rotation: Lots of bakers don’t have to rotate the trays 180 degrees in the oven every 5 minutes, but I do have to with my oven, or I will get lopsided macarons. Please adjust this according to your oven.

Macaron Tools: Please visit this post to check out all the tools I use to make macarons.

Troubleshooting: Visit this post to see the Troubleshooting Guide.

Keyword macarons, rainbow