Cherry Limeade Macarons

Directions

1. 1
   Preheat your oven to 245-300. Start by sifting 2 cups of powdered sugar, your almond flour/meal into a large bowl. If you don't already have a sieve, cheap ones can be bought at Walmart or some other grocery stores.
2. 2
   After sifting, give it a couple good stirs to make sure that everything is properly mixed.
3. 3
   In another bowl (if your mixer has a specific bowl, use that one) add your egg whites and granulated sugar. This will be your meringue. Set your mixer to a medium-high speed and beat until slightly stiff peaks are just beginning to form.
4. 4
   Add your cherry oil and desired food coloring. Continue to beat on medium speed until stiff peaks are beginning to form.
5. 5
   Fold in your meringue, about 1/3 at a time, into the dry mixture. You might not need all of it. It should be about the consistency of cake batter.
6. 6
   Put the batter into a piping bag, and pipe it onto a baking sheet (covering it in parchment paper worked best for me). I made my macarons about the size of a quarter, and about a half of an inch apart. Make sure they are far enough apart where they wont stick together. Rap the sheet on the countertops a couple of times to release air bubbles.
7. 7
   Let your macarons rest for 15 minutes before baking.
8. 8
   Put your macarons in the oven. Mine were done in about 8 minutes. Keep a careful eye on them, because they should not begin to brown on top.
9. 9
   Cool your macarons, and start making your lime frosting.
10. 10
    Combine your butter and lime zest. Start to add powdered sugar, about 1/2 cup at a time, alternating with 1 tbsp of lime juice at a time. Add milk to make the texture more creamy (I only used a splash). Add milk/powdered sugar until you get your desired consistency.
11. 11
    Add green food coloring if you choose to (I made my frosting a light green color, and it went very well with the light pink of my macarons) and chop your maraschino cherries in half (you will need 1/2 for each macaron.
12. 12
    To assemble, pipe the lime frosting onto one side of one cookie. Place 1/2 maraschino cherry in the center, and pipe a tiny bit of frosting over it. Put another cookie on top.
13. 13
    I found that my macarons got better after 24-48 hours of being assembled. I stored mine in a plastic tuboware container, and kept it on my counter.