RECIPE: Spring Cookies for Mother's Day

With Mother's Day fast approaching, what better way to show your mum how much you love her than to make her some delicious goodies with your own fair hands. Here's a fantastic recipe for some really pretty butter biscuits decorated with icing flowers, hearts and mini eggs to put a big smile on your mum's face! You could also make these gorgeous Spring cupcakes and create an extra special Mother's day spread!

You will need:
•    Mixing bowl
•    Small bowl
•    Scales
•    Whisk
•    Spatula
•    Sieve
•    Knife
•    Tablespoon
•    Teaspoon
•    Rolling pin
•    Large chopping board
•    Cookie cutter, 55 mm diameter
•    Plain non-fluted cookie cutter, 45 mm diameter
•    Heart cookie cutter, 30 mm across
•    6-Lobed “blossom” flower cutter for sugar craft, 23 mm diameter
•    Medium “blossom” flower plunger cutter for sugar craft, 10 mm diameter
•    Cocktail stick
•    Baking tray
•    Cooling rack

Ingredients:
•    100g butter, room temperature
•    100g caster sugar
•    175g plain flour
•    1 egg yolk
•    1 tsp vanilla extract
•    Golden syrup
•    30g white chocolate
•    Tube of mini eggs
•    100g royal icing
•    Edible silver balls for cake decorating
•    Pink and yellow food colouring

To make the biscuits:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C / gas mark 4.
2. Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla together in the mixing bowl and whisk in the egg yolk. Sift over the flour and fold into the mixture.
3. Knead lightly to form a soft dough and wrap in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
4. Remove from the fridge and allow to warm and soften a little.
5. Lightly flour the chopping board and rolling pin and roll the dough out to 5mm thick.
6. Use the 55 mm cookie cutter to stamp out 12 - 15 biscuits.
7. Use the heart cookie cutter to stamp out at least 3 heart shaped mini biscuits.
8. Place the biscuits on a greased baking tray and bake in the oven on the middle shelf for approximately 10 minutes. The heart biscuits will be done sooner and take approximately 7 minutes.
9. Place the biscuits on the wire rack to cool

To decorate the biscuits:

1. Divide the royal icing into three pieces. Colour one piece pink with a few drops of pink food colouring, colour one piece yellow using a few drops of yellow food colouring, and leave one piece plain.
2. Lightly dust the chopping board and rolling pin with icing sugar and roll each piece of icing out to 2 mm thick.
3. Use the 45 mm plain cutter to stamp out circles of icing in white, pink and yellow.
4. Spread a thin layer of golden syrup on the back of each circle and place one on top of each biscuit.
5. Re-roll the icing and use the flower cutters to stamp out large and small flowers.
6. Spread a little golden syrup on the back of each flower and use them to decorate some of the biscuits by placing them on top of the icing circles on each biscuit in your chosen design.
7. Put a drop of golden syrup in the centre of each flower using a cocktail stick and drop in an edible silver ball.
8. Continue to decorate the biscuits, this time with mini eggs - secure the eggs in the centre of each biscuit with a little dollop of melted white chocolate.
9. Finally, decorate the biscuits with hearts by stamping out icing hearts using the heart cookie cutter.
10. Secure the icing hearts to the top of the mini heart biscuits using golden syrup and the iced heart biscuits to the top of the remaining biscuits, again using golden syrup, and attach an edible silver ball to the centre of each heart.
11. Place your biscuits on a decorative plate and serve.

This recipe was orginally published in the Spring 2009 issue of UK Handmade Magazine.