Cake Decorations with Macarons: A Buttercream Macaron Cake

Almond and vanilla confetti cake, layered with pink buttercream and topped with store-bought French macarons, developed for 5,280 feet and baked 28–30 minutes in 8-inch pans.

You can decorate the night before, but the finished cake must stay in the refrigerator overnight. Pick macaron colors already on the cake, so it looks planned.

Ingredients for the Cake and Buttercream

This cake serves 16 and was developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. Bake it in four 8-inch cake pans (three also works).

Cake:

• 1½ cups unsalted butter, softened
• 1¾ cups granulated sugar
• 6 egg whites
• 3 cups cake flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
• 3½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp coarse kosher salt
• 1½ cups whole buttermilk
• ½ cup sour cream
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tsp almond extract
• ½ cup rainbow sprinkles

Buttercream:

• 2 cups unsalted butter, softened
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tbsp meringue powder (optional)
• ¼ tsp coarse kosher salt
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2–4 tbsp milk or cream, only if needed
• 2–3 drops soft pink gel food coloring

Topping:

• Store-bought French macarons, plus extra rainbow sprinkles

How to Make the Cake

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F with a rack in the center. Spray the bottoms of four 8-inch pans.
2. Beat the butter and sugar on medium speed for 10 minutes, scraping the bowl now and then, until very light and fluffy.
3. Add the egg whites one at a time, beating about 15 seconds after each.
4. On low speed, add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the buttermilk mixture. Stop once it’s combined.
5. Weigh the pans to divide the batter evenly, then smooth the tops.
6. Bake on the center rack for 28–30 minutes (30–32 minutes in three pans), until a toothpick comes out clean or with moist crumbs.
7. Cool completely on a wire rack. The tops settle as they cool.
8. Spread a thin crumb coat of buttercream and refrigerate 20–30 minutes.
9. Add the final coat of buttercream and top with the macarons.

Macarons on Top

Colorful store-bought French macarons sit on top of a buttercream-frosted confetti cake, and the rainbow sprinkles already in the frosting pick up their colors with no extra planning.

Buttercream piping around the sides and large swirls on top are both optional. If you want one, choose the swirls: they give each macaron a soft spot to rest against, and the sides look fine with a plain smooth coat.

Decorating the night before works.

One reader reported it went fine, with the one condition that the finished cake stays in the refrigerator overnight. That makes this an easy cake to finish ahead of a party.

Leftovers keep at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Color and Coordination

Match the macaron colors to the buttercream and the cake looks planned rather than assembled.

The pale orange and pink watercolor cake shows how: orange buttercream dabbed around the bottom half, pink around the top, then finished with pink macarons that repeat the top shade.

Tint your frosting in 2–3 complementary pastel hues, and let the macarons echo one of them instead of adding a new color.

Ombre shells follow the same logic. Arrange a row from pale to deeper versions of one shade, and the gradient picks up the blended frosting.

A themed set such as pink, gold and yellow also holds together if the buttercream carries at least one of those colors. Keep every macaron color already present somewhere on the cake, and save a mixed rainbow for white frosting.

Flowers and Fruit

A full-decor top puts flowers, regular-size macarons and fruit on the same buttercream cake. Strawberries and raspberries are the best fruit picks, since their red and pink sit easily beside the shells.

Place the macarons first, because they are the most fragile and the biggest visual anchor. Then tuck in fruit and finish with flowers.

Chocolate, meringue cookies and butterflies also sit well beside macarons.

Meringue cookies are the best of these: they share the macarons’ pale, crisp look and add height without competing. A cotton candy cake, for example, carries meringue cookies, flowers and cotton candy macarons that match the filling flavor.

Add one or two extras at most, because with flowers, fruit and macarons already on top, a fourth or fifth element makes the cake look crowded.

Watercolor Buttercream

The watercolor finish gives you soft, blended color across the frosted surface. Once your cake has a crumb coat, tint the remaining buttercream in two or three complementary pastel hues.

The example here uses pale orange and pink: dab the orange around the bottom half of the cake and the pink around the top half, then smooth everything with a bench scraper until you like the way it looks.

You can also dab both colors all over the cake for a more swirled effect, blending them together as you go. Either approach works with the same tools and the same buttercream base.

Pink macarons finish the design, placed around the top edge or clustered in one spot. The pastel tones in the frosting let the macarons stand out without fighting for attention.

Ordering a Macaron Cake Instead

Carousel Macarons makes a macaron cake with 2 layers of giant-size macaron shells and a filling between them. The top is decorated with flowers, regular-size macarons and fruit, and you choose the mix when you order.

Every cake is gluten-free. Full-decor pricing runs $186 for 8–10 servings or $263 for 12–14.

Place your order 10–15 days ahead. Pickup and delivery cover only the Twin Cities Metro Area and surrounding neighborhoods in Minnesota, so this option is closed to everyone outside that region.

A custom design, a flavor off the menu, or a cake above 14 servings can’t be ordered at those listed prices. Email an inquiry and ask for special pricing.

Frequently Asked Questions