How to Paint Macarons & Whimsical Tea Party with Feathered Friends

From cookie to canvas, find tips and materials to paint macarons and create edible art! A fun way to decorate and customize macarons for a tea party or gifting. You’ll also find a whimsical tea setting and tea inspiration from my Tea on Tuesday friends.

Welcome to February’s edition of Tea on Tuesdays,

a celebration of tea on the third Tuesday of every month!

Pam and I are happy to have a special guest and Monday Morning Blooms’ friend,

Lidy at FrenchGardenHouse, joining us for tea today.

We’re glad you’re here, pour yourself a cuppa and join us! ☕

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Fanciful portraits of animals by Vicki Sawyer provide some whimsy

as well as smiles for tea today!

Pick your favorite ‘feathered friends’ mug and join me

at a table by our Winter Nesting Tree.

Our Winter Nesting Tree is decorated with sparkling snowflakes, icy branches,

pine cones, nesting birds and glittery nests for the months of January and February.

With our warming temps, it’s time to take it down, but it’s been nice to

enjoy the sparkle and twinkle in the early mornings and evenings.

We’re enjoying Tea Birds English Breakfast tea,

served from a favorite bird-lidded teapot!

A birdhouse faux teapot adds a little whimsy to our table . . .

Along with ‘House Party’ Placemats by Hester & Cook (on sale!)

featuring the whimsical art of Vicki Sawyer.

Regular readers know I’m a big fan of Vicki Sawyer’s whimsical art!

Artist Vicki Sawyer was inspired by an idea she had one day while walking–

“If birds can build nests, then they can make hats”.

Whimsical napkins were a recent HomeGoods find,

‘Vicki Sawyer-esque,’ with the flowers atop the birds’ heads.

Pewter bird napkin rings were purchased several years ago,

but are still available, joining silver twig flatware at the table.

And look whooooo is hiding here . . .

A snowy white owl found the perfect winter camouflage,

nestled in a cake pedestal for our table.

We’re enjoying French Macarons with our tea today!

If you’re not familiar with macarons, they have delicate, crispy almond meringue shells,

and are typically filled with a sweet layer of buttercream, lemon curd or jam.

They can be a little temperamental to make, but you can find them

 in refrigerated or freezer section of most grocery stores.

I thought it would be fun to hand paint the solid colored shells some using gel food coloring

and edible ink food markers.

They make a fun and tasty mini canvas!

You can add simple embellishments like flower and vines

or paint more elaborate designs,

customizing your macarons to your theme, holiday or season.

You can use the same technique on royal icing topped sugar cookies as seen in

Wild Sugar: Seasonal Sweet Treats Inspired by the Mountain West.

Here are the supplies you’ll need:

AmeriColor Soft Gel Paste Food Color

or

Chefmaster Liqua-Gel food color

Colour Mill food gels are not recommended for painting cookies as they’re oil based and don’t dry properly

Food Safe Paint Brushes

Food Coloring Marker Pens

Clear Vanilla Extract or Vodka

As gel coloring / pastes have a thick consistency, you’ll need dilute them to paint with.

You want to avoid water to dilute the gel as it will oversaturate your cookies

and make the shells soggy, so vodka or a clear vanilla extract is recommended.

To keep your colors vibrant, use a clear vanilla rather than the traditional brown vanilla extract

to prevent your colors from looking muddy.

 Vodka works well to dilute your gel coloring,

as it evaporates quickly, without imparting any flavor or taste.

I gave the tops of my macarons a light wash of color, allowing them to dry

before painting my ‘feathered friends’.

I used a combination of Edible Ink Markers and gel food coloring,

sketching out the design with the markers first.

I layered the colors, letting them dry before adding the smaller, finer details.

You can speed up the drying process with a fan or hair dryer.

A wash of gel coloring on top of the marker will soften and blend the colors,

 giving them more of a watercolor effect.

Experiment and have fun painting macarons. . .

You have a top and bottom side on the macarons to paint and practice on

and you can eat your mistakes. ‘-)

🦉 🐦 🖌️ ☕ 🫖

Details:

Die-Cut ‘House Party’ Placemats / Hester & Cook

Vicki Sawyer Mugs Paperproducts Design

Forest Festivities Appetizer Plates / Paperproducts Design, Amazon, several years ago

Victorian Bird, Gracie China Coastline Imports

Bird Napkins / Mia Charro, HomeGoods

Bird Napkin Rings / Vagabond House

Owl Cake Pedestal and Twig Flatware / Pier 1

Teapot Birdhouse / HomeGoods

Join Pam and Lidy for tea:

Pam at Everyday Living

Lidy at FrenchGardenHouse

Thank you for your visit, sharing with:

 Tablescape Thursday