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Red Velvet Macarons drizzled with white chocolate topped with red velvet cake crumbs

Red Velvet Macarons

These Red Velvet Macarons are filled with Red Velvet Cake, and Cream Cheese Frosting.
Course Dessert
Cuisine American, French
Keyword macarons, red velvet
Prep Time 3 hours
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 4 hours
Servings 22 macarons
Calories 160 kcal
Author camila

Ingredients

Red Velvet Macaron Shells

  • 100 grams egg whites 3.5 oz
  • 100 grams white sugar 3.5 oz
  • 105 grams almond flour 3.7 oz
  • 100 grams powdered sugar 3.5 oz
  • 7 grams cocoa powder 0.4 oz
  • 1 tbsp red gel food coloring or add more for intense color

Red Velvet Cake

  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter room temperature (56 grams, 2 oz)
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil or avocado oil, grapeseed, etc
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar 150 grams, 5.29 oz
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 14 grams red gel food coloring 0.5 oz, 1 tbsp
  • 1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour 167 grams, 5.9 oz
  • 2 tbsp cocoa powder 15 grams, 0.53 oz
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 2/3 cup buttermilk 156 ml

Cream Cheese Frosting

  • 113 grams powdered sugar 1 cup, 4 oz
  • 85 grams cream cheese softened 3 oz, 6 tbsp
  • 42.5 grams unsalted butter softened 1.5 oz, 3 tbsp
  • 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

To assemble

  • 2 oz. white chocolate optional

Instructions

Red Velvet Macaron Shells

  1. Before you start, get all of the ingredients ready. Prepare a large piping bag, fitted with a large round tip (I use 0.5” diameter). Set aside.
  2. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mat.
  3. I use a baking mat with the macaron template already in it. You can make your own or print it from the internet, and just place it under silicone mat, or parchment paper.
  4. Measure out all of the ingredients.
  5. Sift the powdered sugar, almond flour, and cocoa powder together. Set aside.
  6. Place the egg whites and granulated sugar in a heat proof bowl or in a double boiler. Over a pan of simmering water, whisk the whites and sugar until frothy and sugar completely melted. It will take a couple minutes. You can test by touching the mixture between your fingers, and if you feel any sugar granules just keep whisking mixture over the water bath.
  7. Make sure the bottom of the bowl isn’t touching the simmering water. You don’t want the egg whites to cook.
  8. Transfer the syrup to the bowl of a stand mixer.
  9. With the whisk attachment, start whisking the mixture 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.
  10. Raise the speed to medium-high, or high, depending on the power of the mixer you are using, and whip for a few minutes until stiff peaks are formed. Once the meringue get glossy and you start seeing streaks formed by the whisk, it might be time to stop.
  11. Whisk until stiff peaks have formed. The peaks should be shooting straight up, maybe the peaks can have a slight bent at the top, but they shouldn’t be soft, or bending down to the side.
  12. Pour the sifted powdered sugar, almond flour, and cocoa powder into stiff whites.
  13. Start folding gently forming a letter J with a spatula.
  14. Add the food coloring at this point. To achieve the bright red color you will need a lot of food coloring.
  15. It’s time to stop folding when the batter is glossy and has a thick and flowing consistency. There are several ways to test this.
  16. First, pick up some batter with the spatula and try to draw a figure 8 with the batter that is dripping off the spatula. If you can form several 8 figures without the batter breaking up, that’s one indication that it might be ready.
  17. There’s another test you can do. I call it the Teaspoon test.
  18. Grab a teaspoon of batter and spoon onto the parchment paper or silicon mat. Wait a minute to see how it behaves.
  19. If the batter stays stiff, forming a point and doesn’t spread out a bit, start folding a little bit more, about 3 folds.
  20. Test again.
  21. Once the batter spreads out a bit and starts to look glossy and smooth on top, on the parchment paper or baking mat, transfer my mixture to the piping bag.
  22. 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.
  23. This is a very important part about making macarons. The best way I can describe this stage being perfect is when you hold the spatula with batter on top of the bowl and the batter falls off the spatula slowly but effortlessly. The batter will keep flowing off the spatula non-stop, but not too quickly.
  24. Transfer the batter to a piping bag fitted with a round tip.
  25. Place the piping bag directly 90 degrees over the center of each macaron template. Apply gentle pressure and carefully pipe for about 3 seconds, and then pull the bag up.
  26. Once you’ve piped as many circles as you can, bang the trays against the counter a few times each. This will release air bubbles that are in the batter and prevent your macaron shells from cracking.
  27. Use a toothpick to gently poke any bubbles of air that may have formed on the surface of the macaron shells.
  28. 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. You’ll know they’re ready when you gently touch the surface of a macaron and it seems dry.
  29. Pre-heat the oven to 325Fº.
  30. Bake one tray at a time.
  31. Bake for 5 minutes, rotate tray.
  32. Bake for 5 more minutes. Rotate again.
  33. Bake each tray for a total of 18-20 minutes rotating every 5 minutes.
  34. When baked, the macarons will have a deeper color and formed feet. And they will be coming off the mat easily, and with a completely formed bottom.
  35. If you try to move a macaron and it feels jiggly, it needs to keep baking.
  36. Remove from the oven and bake the other tray.
  37. Let the macarons cool down before proceeding with the filling.

Red Velvet Cake

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 350ºF. Grease and line a jelly roll pan (10x15”-read the notes for substitution) with parchment paper, then grease the parchment as well. Or simply butter and flour the pan. Set aside.
  2. Cream the butter, oil, and granulated sugar in a bowl with an electric mixer for 2 minutes, until fluffy and lightened in color.
  3. Add the egg and mix to combine.
  4. Add the vanilla extract and the red gel food coloring, and mix until incorporated.
  5. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt together, and let’s add it to the batter in thirds, alternating with the buttermilk.
  6. Add 1/3 of the dry mixture to the batter. Mix until incorporated.
  7. Add 1/3 cup of buttermilk to the bowl. Mix until combined.
  8. Now add another 1/3 of the dry mixture to the batter.
  9. Mix, and then add the remaining 1/3 cup of buttermilk.
  10. Finally, finish with another addition of flour. Mix until incorporated.
  11. Pour the batter onto the prepared baking pan.
  12. Bake on the pre-heated oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the cake.
  13. Remove and let it cool completely.

Cream Cheese Frosting

  1. Start by sifting the powdered sugar. Set it aside.
  2. Now, cream the softened cream cheese and butter together in the bowl of an electric mixer, for about 2 minutes, until light and fluffy.
  3. Add vanilla extract. Mix to combine.
  4. With the mixer off, add the powdered sugar to the bowl.
  5. Turn mixer on low to incorporate the powdered sugar with the cream cheese and butter.
  6. Once you see no streaks of dry powdered sugar, cream mixture on medium high for one minute.
  7. If the frosting is too runny, add more powdered sugar as needed. And if the frosting is too stiff, add a teaspoon of water or milk to thin it out.
  8. This frosting will store well in the fridge for up to 5 days, covered.
  9. Make sure to always leave the frosting covered. Cover the bowl with a lid or plastic wrap, because otherwise, the surface will dry out and get hard.
  10. Place the frosting in a piping bag fitted with the tip of choice. I used a round tip with 3/4” in diameter.

To assemble

  1. Melt the white chocolate and drizzle on top of the shells, or dip the shells in the melted chocolate. Top with red velvet cake crumbs if desired.
  2. Use a 1 inch round cookie cutter to cut cake circles.
  3. Place each cake circle on a bottom shell.
  4. Pipe the frosting around the edges of the cake circle. Make sure the frosting is as high, or higher than the cake height, or the top macaron shell won’t stick to the bottom one.
  5. Top each with a decorated shell.

Storage

  1. Store these macarons in the fridge for up to 5 days.
  2. You can freeze these macarons for up to 2 months in an air tight container.

Recipe Notes

Food coloring: Make sure to use gel food coloring. I use Wilton Color Right Performance Coloring Set. 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.

Storage: This is the Storage Container I use to store my macarons.

Jelly Roll pan: you can use a 9×13” pan to bake the Red Velvet Cake instead of the jelly roll pan, but the cake will come out thicker, so you might have to slice it in the middle before filling the macarons so it’s not too thick. Or you can bake the cake on a regular baking sheet, since the batter is thick, and you need the cake to be thin anyway, just spread the batter in the middle of the baking sheet.

Red Velvet Cake: you will have leftover cake. You can freeze the leftover cake, and eat later. You can serve with any remaining cream cheese frosting. Or you can simply halve the recipe, make sure to use weight measurements to do that, specially when adding 1/2 of an egg.

Nutrition Facts
Red Velvet Macarons
Amount Per Serving (1 macaron)
Calories 160
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.