Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 300°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
2. Heat a small pot of water over medium heat until it steams. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine egg whites and granulated sugar. Place bowl over steaming pot, creating a double boiler.
3. Whisk egg whites and sugar until sugar melts completely and egg whites become white and frothy, 1 to 1.5 minutes. Remove from heat and place bowl back onto standing mixer.
4. Fit stand mixer with whisk attachment and whisk on high speed for 2-3 minutes, until stiff peaks form. Congratulations, you just made a Swiss meringue!
5. Sift together almond flour and powdered sugar, then gently shake into meringue bowl. Add in the blue and pink food coloring.
6. Place bowl onto stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Turn mixer to medium speed and whisk for 10 seconds. Adjust the food coloring as needed, but do not over mix the batter.Stop mixer and use a spatula to scoop up some of the batter. If you can make a figure-eight with the dripping batter without the batter breaking, you can stop. But most likely you will need another 3-5 seconds. So repeat process, and try the figure-eight again. The best way to describe the perfect consistency is like slow moving lava. It should give, but only slightly, like in slow-motion.
7. Once your batter is the correct consistency, scoop it into a large pastry bag fitted with a 1 inch tip. Pipe silver dollar-sized circles onto prepared baking sheets, keeping about 1.5 inches between each meringue. Bang baking sheet on counter 3 times to remove any air bubbles.
8. In a small bowl combine a few drops of brown food coloring with a little bit of water. Use a dry brush to splatter the macarons lightly to create the faux robin’s egg blue. No need to let the macarons dry, just pop them into the prepared oven for 13 minutes, turning around halfway through, then allow to cool completely before removing from baking sheets.
9. While the macarons are baking, make the buttercream. Cream the butter in a standing mixer fitted with a whisk attachment.
10. Add in the powdered sugar, cocoa powder, milk,  vanilla extract, and salt. Beat for 60 seconds, until the frosting is nicely whipped. If the frosting is too dry, add in another teaspoon of milk.
11. Scoop mixture into a piping bag fitted with a ½ inch star tip. Once the macarons have cooled completely, pipe the buttercream around the bottom half of the macarons. Sandwich with another macaron. Repeat with all macarons.