Two Delicious Recipes For Biscuits To Decorate

The next two recipes that we are going to share with you as part of our afternoon tea preparations for Mother’s Day are for delicious biscuits that can be individually and creatively decorated.

But why two recipes? Well, the first is a one-two-three recipe which results in a crumbly dough which is harder to work with but makes delicious biscuits. The second is for a dough that is easier to work with so kids can enjoy rolling it and cutting biscuits out into different shapes that still taste great 😃. Both doughs can also be cut into any shape and decorated for any occasion from Mother’s Day to birthdays, Halloween, Christmas or any other celebrations, seasons or events. 

We spent many an afternoon as kids cutting out biscuits in different shapes and decorating them with coloured icing and any sweets, chocolate or edible decorations we could get our hands on. It was like having a creative art party, except you could eat what you made, and, of course, sneakily eat the decorations and icing as you went along. 

And now, we still enjoy a good biscuit decorating party when we get together. It’s a great activity and excuse to get creative and have fun whilst catching up, drinking tea and involving the kids too. Here, as they say, are some we made earlier: 

So, try the two recipes, see which you like best and have fun. The biscuits can be stored in an airtight container for a few days.

(Good Housekeeping Cookery Book, Ed 1978)

Makes: about 15 biscuits 

Time: about 15 minutes plus cooking time and decorating time

50g/2oz caster sugar

100g/4oz lightly salted butter - softened

150g/5oz plain flour - plus extra for rolling the dough out

• Heat the oven to 150 degrees (fan oven).
• Line two baking trays with greaseproof paper
• Cream the caster sugar and softened butter together until light and fluffy using a wooden spoon or electric whisk
• Fold the flour in a spoonful at a time using a wooden spoon or a spatula. The dough will be quite crumbly so you might need to finish it off using your finger tips and then needing it together with your hands.
• You can use any biscuit cutters you choose. For Mother’s Day you might want to use round or heart-shaped biscuit cutters.
• Sprinkle the rolling pin with flour to stop the dough from sticking. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface until it is about 3mm thick. Cut your biscuits out using a biscuit cutter.
• Dip the the cutter in flour first to stop the dough sticking.
• If you haven’t got biscuit cutters you could use the open end of a glass, or a knife to cut your biscuits out freehand.
• Place your biscuits onto the baking tray/s. Leave space between each one as they will spread and rise as they cook. Bake the biscuits in the oven for 20-25 minutes, or until they are starting to colour slightly.
• Check the biscuits after about 10 minutes and, if you’re using two baking trays, switch the trays around in the oven so that the biscuits bake evenly.
• Leave the biscuits to rest on the baking trays for a few minutes to harden before transferring them to a cooling rack. 

(BBC food website)

100g/3.5oz unsalted butter, softened

100g/3.5oz caster sugar

1 medium free-range egg, lightly beaten

1tsp vanilla essence/extract

275g/10oz plain flour

• Pre-heat oven to 190 degrees C/170 degrees C (fan)/ Gas mark 5
• Line two baking trays with greaseproof paper
• Cream the caster sugar and softened butter together until light and fluffy using a wooden spoon or electric whisk.
• Whisk/mix the vanilla extract and egg in a bit at a time.
• Stir in the flour using a wooden spoon or spatula, to form a dough. Bring the dough together with your hands.
• Roll your dough out on a lightly-floured surface to about 1cm thick.
• Cut out your biscuits using your chosen cutters. Kids will love getting involved with this part. (If you haven’t got biscuit cutters you could use the open end of a glass or a knife.)
• Place your biscuits on a baking tray and bake for 8-10 minutes, or until golden brown. Switch the trays around half way through so that your biscuits bake evenly.
• Leave your biscuits to harden on the baking trays for a couple of minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.

Making the icing or melting chocolate:

• When your biscuits are cold they’re ready for decorating. You can use icing or melted chocolate as the basis for your biscuit decorating 😃

• You can use icing pens which you can buy from supermarkets or other stores, but we prefer making our own icing:
• 100g icing sugar, Cold water, Food colouring - choose one colour or several colours, Vanilla essence - a couple of drops (optional) Add the vanilla essence (optional) and a level teaspoon of cold water to the icing sugar and start mixing. Keep adding a couple of drops of water at a time until the icing is at a consistency that you can work with - you really won’t need much water. If it becomes too runny simply add more icing sugar. If it gets too thick as you’re decorating your biscuits, add a couple more drops of water.

• Add a couple of drops of food colouring to your icing and mix. Add more until you have the colour you want.
• If you’ve chosen several colours, split the white icing into several bowls and mix a different food colouring in to each.

• As an alternative to icing, you can melt some chocolate of your choice to decorate your biscuits with.
• For the hedgehogs (see pictures above), we used melted white chocolate for their faces, melted dark chocolate covered in chocolate sprinkles for their bodies. 

You can use anything you have in the cupboard or want to decorate with: Sweets, edible decorations, chocolates etc. Put a selection of things out in small dishes to use when decorating your biscuits.

We particularly like: 

Silver candy balls

Hundreds and thousands /coloured candy 

Chocolate sprinkles

Chocolate drops

Chocolate buttons

Smarties 

Fizzy/ strawberry laces

Jelly sweets 

Candy decorations from the baking section - e.g. little candy flowers 🌸 

We hope you have as much fun making and decorating these delicious biscuits as we do. 😃

With love and hugs xox