Macaron recipe adapted from How To Cook That

110g icing sugar
60g almond meal
60g or 2 egg whites
40g caster sugar

Rose Buttercream

100g unsalted butter
3 cups (360g) icing sugar
1-2 tablespoon milk (to adjust consistency)
1/2 tsp rose extract

Royal Icing

2 tablespoon egg white
1 cup icing sugar
milk if necessary to adjust consistency

Extras

White powdered food colouring
Cranberry jam for filling

To make Macaron shells:

Preheat oven to 320F (160 degrees Celsius). Use a thermometer to be exactly precise. (I usually preheat the oven while I wait for macarons to dry)

Sift together the icing sugar and almond meal using a coarse sieve (if you use a fine sieve the almond meal will not go through). Discard any gritty bits of almond meal that do not go through.

Beat together the egg whites and caster sugar on high speed until they are stiff enough that you can turn the bowl upside down without them falling out. Beat for an additional 2 minutes. Add the almond icing sugar mixture and fold in using a rubber spatula. Keep gently folding until the mixture looks like lava, it should have some movement but not be runny. While you are folding periodically scrape down the sides of the bowl and the spatula to make sure everything is mixed uniformly.

Spoon into a piping bag and pipe sakura flowers onto non-stick baking paper. Use a toothpick to flare out the edges. Bang on the bench firmly several times on each side.

Allow to dry until a shell has formed around the macarons, and then place in the oven. Bake at 160 deg C until a foot has formed and the shells are crisp. This takes roughly 10 minutes for me. Try not to open the oven during the cooking process as this will cause a drop in oven temp and may make your macarons hollow.

Cool and then gently peel off the baking paper (if you can’t do this easily the shells are not done yet) and pair similar-sized shells. Sometimes I like to flip the macarons over to prevent hollows as it cools.

To make rose buttercream, royal icing and assembly

Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add milk to adjust consistency. Add rose extract. Pipe buttercream and cranberry jam in between the macaron shells. Brush with white food colouring to create a gradient effect on the sakura macarons. Use royal icing to draw on decorations if desired. To make royal icing, whisk egg white until soft peaks and add icing sugar. Adjust consistency if needed with milk. Place in a small piping bag to pipe on designs. Enjoy!