Citron Vanilla Macarons

Just in the mood for prettiness today. I'm not going to mess around with new flavours so I'll split the batch and make classic citron vanilla in a Tiffany's shade of blue with white buttercream. With the other half, I'll redux pretty-in-pink raspberry macarons.

Macaron shells:

• 65g almond meal
• 80g icing sugar
• 40g caster sugar
• 50g egg whites, aged
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon oil
• 3 drops sky blue food colouring

Preheat oven to 160C and prepare 2 baking trays lined with silicon sheets.

Sift almond flour and icing sugar in a bowl. Beat room temperature egg whites and caster sugar till stiff peaks form. Add dry ingredients to meringue and mix well until batter is smooth and thick. Add the lemon oil and tint the batter a pastel shade of blue.

From Tiffany's with love

Spoon the batter into a piping bag/gun with a 1/2-inch nozzle and pipe evenly onto the baking trays in 3cm globs, spaced about 4cm apart (the piped batter will spread about 1 cm). Scatter sprinkles of your choice (or none at all) and let the piped batter dry till the skin forms. Bake for 12 minutes.

Buttercream filling:

• 100g butter, softened to room temperature
• 150g icing sugar, sifted
• 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste

Beat butter till nice and smooth, then add icing sugar and vanilla paste and beat till light and creamy. Spoon into an icing bag and chill for 15 minutes in the fridge.

Pipe a hershey kiss-sized gob onto each shell and sandwich with another. Let sit in refrigerator overnight and warm up to room temperature before eating.