tea party macarons

i've been seeing pictures of these cute little colorful macarons all over the place lately - they seem to be quite the trend. and i started thinking what a perfect tea party treat to have little macarons on tea trays or tiers along with other appetizers i have in mind (not much of a tea party if you don't have the treats also). so i decided to attempt these chocolate ganache filled vanilla macarons - and i went with green of course, since it's alex's favorite color (and she won't let you forget that, believe me). ok, so this was my second attempt actually. the first time i tried to make these macarons the meringue flattened and the almond flour was not ground enough and i didn't properly sift the almond flour/sugar mixture. so i did not even get past the wafer part the first time around. so now, attempt number two. i took the time to sift the flour/sugar mixture twice like it says in the instructions - what a pain in the behind - i don't have a flour sifter so i did it with a medium mesh strainer, my goodness i highly recommend spending the money on a sifter. i feel like this part took me forever. but anyways, the meringue turned out well, i mixed it with the flour and used a frosting bag and large circle tip to make 1 inch round wafers (i think the dough was still not as thick as it should have been but it was close enough to go forward and keep trying). while those were setting up i mixed up with chocolate ganache - which actually was pretty easy, and considering how awesomely delicious ganache is that was surprising. now, time to bake the wafers (after they were not sticky to touch). first batch was burnt, second batch was better but undercooked and third batch was still pretty but undercooked as well. i think i needed to turn the oven down and still hold the original time. i felt like you lost some of the green after baking them, but i can pump up the color and try not to burn them next time. funny thing is the burnt ones are pretty darn tasty - they're like roasted marshmallows - yum. finally, you sandwich a little chocolate ganache between two wafers and voila you have this super cute macaron. they look better in the books than mine do. when i was done i was never going to make these again because they took me the better part of a day and still didn't look like i was expecting them to. but then i ate some...and they are deliciously addicting. i'm still on the fence as to whether they were worth the effort or not, so we'll see if i make a third attempt at them for alex's tea party birthday party.