it's been a pretty long week. work has been insane and j got into a car accident. he's fine (yaay!), but it's still never a great occurrence.

thankfully his new coworkers were kind enough to send dinner one evening for us, which was so welcome. i hate returning dishes empty, especially on the heels of a nice gesture from people who don't know us very well, so i racked my brain to come up with something cute to fill them with. i'd seen these painted macarons on pinterest, but initially dismissed the idea since i didn't think i'd have the artistic ability to carry them out. but they remained on my mind for a few days, and looked so gorgeous, i finally decided to take a stab at them.

all you need is some gel food coloring and a little almond extract to create edible "paint." the paint can be thinned with water as needed to create that kind of watercolor look. i started with the lightest shades first, and layered darker color gradually on top. i omitted any food coloring in the shells, since i wanted the paint on a clean white background, and didn't want any interference. for flavor i filled the macarons with naturally flavored lemon buttercream.

| ingredients |

for painting
gel food coloring and if desired, edible candy pens
almond extract
food safe paint brushes
water

lemon buttercream
8 tbsp butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
zest of 1 lemon
juice from one lemon
milk or heavy cream (if needed)

| lemon buttercream method |

beat butter with an electric mixer until pale. add lemon zest, juice, and powdered sugar and whip until fluffy. if frosting is not fluffy enough, additional powdered sugar can be added. if the mixture gets too thick, use a little milk or heavy cream to thin.

i wanted a pretty thick consistency since i didn't want the tops of the macarons to slide.