Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mat.

Measure out all of the ingredients.

Sift the powdered sugar and almond flour. Set it aside.

Whisk the sugar and the egg white powder (if using) in a bowl, and place it over a pan with barely simmering water.

Add the egg whites to the sugar and whisk the mixture until frothy and 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. Whisk on medium for one to two minutes, until the mixture is white and starting to become fluffy. Raise the speed 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.

Fold the dry ingredients with the meringue just until you see no more dry ingredients in the meringue.

As soon as you see no more dry ingredients in the meringue, stop stirring. Divide the batter between five different bowls.

Work with one bowl at a time, leaving the other ones covered meanwhile. You will want the white batter to have the largest amount because it will use about 3-4 times more white batter than colorful batter per shell.

To the first batter add white powder food coloring (or just skip and don’t add any) and stir 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.

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.

Once the first batter achieves the perfect consistency, transfer it to a piping bag. 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 colored the second batter yellow, I added a bit of gold and also egg yolk gel food coloring from americolor. After adding food coloring, stir until the perfect consistency is achieved, like I’ve explained above.

Transfer the yellow batter to the piping bag. And secure the top with a tie.

Now, it’s time to work with the green batter. I added quite a bit of leaf green gel food coloring also by Americolor. After adding food coloring, stir until the perfect consistency is achieved, like I’ve explained above.

Transfer the green batter to a piping bag. And secure the top with a tie.

Next, let’s make the blue batter. I added some royal blue food coloring from Americolor.

After adding food coloring, stir until the perfect consistency is achieved, like I’ve explained above.
Transfer the blue batter to a piping bag and secure the top with a tie.

Lastly, make the red batter. Add red food coloring, you might need quite a bit in order to make a vibrant red. Just be careful not to overmix the batter as you continue to add color in order to achieve the desired tone.

Time to start piping! We are going to pipe a dollop of batter that’s about 3/4 inch in diameter. I used a wilton 8 to pipe them.

After piping the batter, tap the tray against the counter or against the palm of your hand to release any air bubbles and let it dry completely before proceeding.

Once the batter dries, you can pipe the white batter on top. I used a larger tip to pipe the white batter. This was a wilton 12.

Place the piping bag on top of the mini macaron you’ve piped previously, right on the center. Then start applying pressure until enough batter gets released to cover the entire surface of the colorful batter on the bottom.

Try to apply uniform pressure so the batter is dispensed evenly over the surface of the bottom shell.

Immediately tap the tray against the counter or against the palm of your hand to release air bubbles, and to help the white batter spread out and cover the entire mini shell.

Use a toothpick to pop any bubbles from the surface of the shells.

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, how much food coloring you have added, and on the consistency of the batter. You’ll know the macarons are ready to be baked. when you gently touch the surface of a macaron and it seems dry, and doesn’t stick to your finger.

I baked mine at a 315 Fahrenheit oven for about 20 minutes. I pre-heated my oven for about 1 hour before starting, and I also have a pizza stone on the bottom rack of my oven in an attempt to control temperature fluctuations. I have been baking my macarons on a rimless baking sheet for best results and better air circulation, to help the macarons bake evenly.

Bake one tray at a time.

Bake for 5 minutes, rotate the tray in the oven to bake evenly on all sides. And then continue baking.

I bake each tray for about 15 to 20 minutes, rotating after the first five minutes baking. This means to simply turn the tray around in the oven 180 degrees, so it’s making sure the heat is distributed evenly since the back and the front of the oven often have different temperatures.

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.

For the filling, we will make a simple cream cheese frosting, which also has to be divided into 5 different colors.

Beat the butter and cream cheese until fluffy and creamy together.

With the mixer off, add the powdered sugar and mix on low until incorporated.

If the frosting is too soft, add more powdered sugar, and if it’s too stiff, add some liquid such as water, milk, or heavy cream to thin it out. Raise the speed to medium high and beat for a minute or two until fluffy and smooth.

Add vanilla extract and mix to combine.

Now let’s divide the frosting between 5 different bowls.

Color each portion of the frosting with a different color correspondent to a Hogwarts house. Here I am using powdered food coloring because is it much better for buttercream, since it doesn’t add any more moisture to it.

Start by piping a ring of the white frosting around the edges of each macaron shell. Then pipe a bit of the colorful frosting in the center of each shell.

Top with another shell.

Once the gold powder has been diluted, dip the brush in the liquid and flick it against a fork to create the splatter effect on the shells.

Let the shells mature in the fridge overnight before serving.