These Flamingo Macarons are super cute and fun to make. You can find the templates to download and print to pipe your own flamingos.
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword flamingo, macarons
Prep Time 3 hourshours
Cook Time 40 minutesminutes
Total Time 3 hourshours40 minutesminutes
Servings 22macarons
Calories 130kcal
Author Camila Hurst
Ingredients
Macaron Shells
100gramsegg whites
100gramsgranulated sugar
105gramsalmond flour
105gramspowdered sugar
Pink and black food coloring
Wings
56gramswhite chocolate or white candy melts
Pink powder food coloringor candy food coloring
Legs
Small piece of pink fondant
Vanilla Buttercream
6tbspunsalted butter softened 85 grams
1 1/2 to 2cupsconfectioners’ sugar sifted 187 to 240 grams
1tspvanilla extract
1/2 -1tbspmilk as necessary
Pink food coloring
To decorate
Pink Luster Dust
Edible Marker
Instructions
Macaron shells
Before you start, get all of the ingredients ready. Prepare one large piping bag, fitted with a round tip, I used a Wilton 8 to pipe the flamingo body. To pipe the beak I used a number 4 tip for the white part, and a number 3 tip for the black part.
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mat, place the printable template under the mat.
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 three different bowls. You will only need a tiny little bit for the black batter and for the white batter. About one or two spatula fulls of batter for each of those colors. The majority of the batter will be colored pink.
Work with one bowl at a time, leaving the other ones covered meanwhile.
To the first batter I added black food coloring. 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 (black) achieves the perfect consistency, transfer it to one of the prepared piping bags fitted with tip number 3. 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. I didn’t add any food coloring to the second batter. Simply fold until the perfect consistency is achieved, like I’ve explained above.
Transfer the batter to another piping bag fitted with a number 4 tip. And secure the top with a tie.
Now move on to the final batter, the pink color. Add food coloring, I used fuchsia gel food coloring.
Fold until the perfect consistency has been achieved, and you can pick up some batter and form several figure 8s with the batter that’s flowing off the spatula without having it break up, and even after it breaks up it still continues to flow off the spatula slowly and effortlessly.
Transfer the pink batter to a piping bag fitted with a number 8 tip.
Piping the flamingos
Pipe the flamingo’s body with the piping bag positioned at a 90 degree angle at the head, then drag the piping bag along the whole body of the flamingo, when you get to the bottom part, apply a bit more pressure to release more batter, since this part is a bit larger.
Then drag the piping bag to the side and slightly up, to form the tail part.
Use a toothpick to smooth out the batter and drag it out to the outlines.
Now grab the white batter and pipe the white part of the beak by just piping a small drop of batter. Then immediately use a toothpick to spread the batter to the outlines of the beak portion.
Lastly, pipe the black part by simply piping a dot of black batter at the end of the beak.
Use a toothpick to drag the batter out slightly so it spreads out to the shape of the beak.
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.
Continue to pipe all the macarons. Don’t forget to pipe both sides, the flamingos facing right and facing left, so you can pair them up later.
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.
I bake each tray for about 15 to 20 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.
Wings
Melt the chocolate or candy melts and color it with the food coloring.
Attention! Most food colorings won’t work with chocolate and candy melts, it will make them seize. Which is why I use powdered food coloring. You will need to get food coloring that is proper for chocolate.
Print the template for the wings.
Pipe or spoon a small dollop of chocolate at the end of each wing template.
Use the back of a spoon to spread the batter out to form a wing shape. You don’t necessarily need the template, but this will help you obtain more uniform wings.
The wings can’t be too thin or they will break.
Immediately after piping the wings, place them in the fridge.
Legs
For the legs, grab a tiny piece of pink fondant.
Roll it out against the counter to form a thin snake shape.
Slice two pieces of the fondant string the same size.
Attach the two pieces at the top, then fold one of the legs over the other forming a number 4 shape.
Let the legs dry for a couple of hours.
Buttercream
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.
On low speed, beat the sugar and butter together. Once they are incorporated, turn speed to medium and cream for 1-2 minutes until very fluffy.
Add the vanilla beat for another 30-45 seconds.
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.
Add food coloring if you want to. I used a tiny little drop of pink food coloring.
Place the frosting in a piping bag fitted with a small round tip.
To assemble
Draw an eye on each flamingo.
Pipe a small amount of frosting on each bottom shell of the flamingos.
Place a dried leg in the middle of each shell and then top with another shell, so the leg is attached in the middle of each macaron.
It’s good to leave the macarons resting with a support under the legs so they are suspended and will be able to maintain a straight shape as the buttercream firms in the fridge.
Re-melt some of the chocolate from before, and then brush a tiny bit on each flamingo body.
Remove the wings from the fridge. Attach a wing to each macaron.
If desired you can also brush each macaron with Pink Luster dust.
Storage
The macarons will store nicely for up to 5 days in the fridge and in the freezer for up to 1 month.
Notes
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.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.