3D Peony Macaron Tutorial

Alright y’all, this was my first full 3D macaron endeavor, and I’m pretty dang excited with how it turned out! Follow along to find out how you can create this 3D Peony Macaron Showstopper!

Each layer of the flower alternates between curved macaron shell and vanilla rose buttercream. I know, I know, it’s a peony not a rose, but sometimes you’ve gotta work with what you’ve got in the pantry, and peony water was in short supply!

First, let’s go over the ombre color of the batter. I opted to split one batch and create three colors with it vs making 3 separate batches.

To create the base shade, I added 1 drop of Americolor Deep Pink, and 1 drop of Americolor Lemon Yellow during my soft peaks stage of my meringue. I was going for peachy and I was very happy with the hues this simple color blend created!

From there, I continued as normal up until I folded in my dry ingredients. Once my dry ingredients were JUST incorporated but NOT macaronaged, I split my batter into three equal parts. Place each third of batter in its own bowl. With the first third of batter, I finished macaronaging it (maybe just slightly under folding) and put in a piping bag fitted with a coupler.

*If you are using disposable bags, you won’t need a coupler since you can cut your bag tip to the desired size. I use silicone reusable bags, so I needed to fit each bag with a coupler so I could switch my small round piping tip from bag to bag as I needed it.

To color the second portion of batter, you’re going to add one more drop of Deep Pink, and 1 more Drop of Lemon Yellow. I learned this trick from Sweet Mac Shop on Instagram to double the color between each ombre shade! She is the color QUEEN and I highly recommend following her on Insta! Technically adding one more full drop to 1/3 of the batter is more than doubling if you’re considering the original drop to batter ratio, but it worked out and I was still happy with the color transitions!

For the third portion, you’ll want to add 2 drops each of Deep Pink and Lemon Yellow. After you’ve finished mixing each color, finish your macaronage process and put each into it’s own piping bag.

To create the curved petals, you’ll need a half sphere silicone mold. I purchased mine last year to make cocoa bombs, but this year I saw that bakers were using them to pipe macaron batter on to create new shapes. Here’s a link to the molds I purchased.

For each petal, pipe an organic shaped outline with a wavy edge (see photo) using a SMALL round piping tip somewhere around a size 3 tip from Wilton. Too much excess batter will droop and pool, so try not to pipe it on too thick. Fill in your outline similar to how cookie decorators frost during the flooding stage. See video for reference! Once your shape is fully piped, use a scribe or a toothpick to twirl the lines together to smooth the surface a bit.

I had three molds, and filled each one with petals of one color. For my darkest shade, I made small petals. For the medium shade, I did medium petals, and for the lightest shade, I made large petals that covered the majority of the half sphere.

To bake your petals, I would recommend dropping your oven temp by 5 or 10 degrees and opting for a longer slower bake time. You do NOT want to under bake these because it will make them extremely difficult to remove from the mold. Bake a few minutes past the point where your petals no longer wiggle when gently nudged or tapped.

Wait until the petals are COMPLETELY cool before attempting to remove them. Be cautious and do your best to support the petals as you pull the mold away.

Now there’s just one last thing to do before assembly! You’ll need to make a batch of buttercream split into three shades similar to your ombre batter. Use the same 1:1 ratio of deep pink and lemon yellow to color your buttercream in the same hue.

To begin putting your peony together, start by cutting a small piece of parchment paper out and stick it to a turn table with a small amount of buttercream. Then, using a piping bag fitted with a large rose tip and filled with your darkest shade of buttercream, begin piping a mound of buttercream as your base.

Using words to describe the piping process will be less effective than showing you a video, so at this point I’ll just give you the basics and then send you to watch that for the full picture!

The basic idea is to pipe almost as you would a rose. After you pipe one layer of petals, you’ll add on a layer of your macaron petals in the darkest shade! You may need to adjust your macaron petal size by breaking off a small amount of the bottom so you have the proper length.

Next, you’ll pipe a layer of buttercream petals in your medium shade, and stick on a layer of your medium shade macaron petals. Last, you’ll pipe a layer of petals in your lightest shade of buttercream on what you’ve assembled so far of your flower, and then you’ll ALSO add one extra layer of buttercream petals on your large light macaron petals before placing on that last layer.

The mini peony’s with the more open look were created in a reverse order. I started with large petals, and then worked by way backwards! I had some extra petals so I figured I might as well use them up.

All in all, I wouldn’t classify this process as difficult, but it does take patience with all the color mixing and piping! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, and it inspires you to create something new! Thanks for reading along!