Raise a pinky and try your hand at these delicious afternoon tea treats – rose macarons sandwiched together with a chocolate butter filling! Recipe by Yolande Schoeman. Photograph by Kelly Zetler.

Macarons

100g ground almonds
180g icing sugar
3 egg whites
10ml castor sugar
5ml rose syrup

• Preheat oven to 150°C.
• Place the ground almonds and icing sugar in a food processor and blend until fine in texture and evenly mixed.
• Remove the mixture from the food processor and sift to remove any lumps or coarse almond pieces.
• Whisk the egg whites until just foamy and thick, then slowly add the caster sugar and whisk until soft peaks form.
• Gently fold in the rose syrup (if a darker pink colour is desired, add a small drop of food colouring).
• In four separate batches, gently fold the almond mixture into the whipped egg whites, taking care not overwork the mixture.
• Place the mixture in a piping bag fitted with a round nozzle. Pipe evenly sized rounds, 3cm apart, onto a lined baking tray.
• Bake until just done, about 15 – 20 minutes. Leave to cool completely before removing the macaroons from the tray.

Chocolate Butter Filling

100g dark chocolate
50g soft butter
20ml cream

• Melt the chocolate in a bain Marie.
• Remove the chocolate from the heat and stir in the butter.
• Add just enough cream to make the filling easy to spread.

Assembly:

• Sandwich the macaroons together with the chocolate butter filling. For a neat finish, pipe the filling onto one round and gently stick another on top.