Biscuit Favours

Perfect as favours at a wedding these beautiful small biscuit favours are easy to make - and delicious to eat!   Ingredients | Makes 30 For the biscuits:

• 225g butter, softened
• 200g caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 425g plain flour, sifted

For the glaze icing:

• 500g icing sugar, sifted
• 4 tbsp glucose
• 60ml water
• Gel food colouring

Method:

1. For the biscuits, cream the butter, sugar and vanilla extract together until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat well. Add the flour and bring together with a round ended knife to form a soft dough. Split the dough into smaller portions and roll out on a lightly floured work surface to a depth of approx 8mm.
2. Preheat the oven to 200˚C/180˚C fan/gas mark 5. Cut shapes from the dough using cookie cutters. For the teacup biscuits, use a sharp knife to cut small rectangles from the bottom of the biscuits which will allow them to sit on the side of a teacup. For the skewer biscuits, insert one end of the skewer carefully through the centre bottom of the biscuit and gently push until the end of the skewer is halfway up the biscuit.
3. Transfer the biscuits to a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake in batches for 8-10 mins until lightly golden around the edges. Allow to cool on the tray for 5 mins before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
4. For the glaze icing, whisk the icing sugar, glucose and water together until well combined. The consistency of the icing is very important when decorating using the flooding method so test by lifting up the icing with a spatula or spoon, the ribbon or trail created should disappear at 10 seconds, if it is still visible at 10 seconds then the icing needs to be a little thinner so add a drop of water a tiny bit at a time. If the icing trail disappears before the count of 10 seconds it will need thickening so add a spoonful of icing sugar at a time.
5. Divide the icing into three portions. Leave one portion white, colour another portion pale yellow and colour the remaining portion pale pink using just a tiny amount of gel food colouring. Transfer the icing into three separate piping bags, each fitted with a coupler and a No.3 piping tip.
6. To ice the biscuits, pipe icing around the outline of the biscuit using your chosen colour and set aside for 1 min before flooding the centre with the same icing. Set the flooded biscuits aside to dry for 1 hour.
7. To decorate the biscuits, change the tips on each piping bag to a No.1 tip then for the spotted design, pipe small bulbs of icing in a random pattern across the flooded biscuit. For the white daisies, pipe the outline of the daisy petals to the centre of the biscuit using white icing and set aside to dry for 15 mins. Pipe a small yellow bulb to form the centre of the daisy. For the pink hearts, pipe the outline of 3-4 daisy petals in white in the top corner of the biscuit and allow to dry for 1 minute. Flood the petals with white icing and dry for 15 mins. Pipe over the outline of the petals in white then pipe four bulbs graduated in size at the bottom of the heart or on the opposite side, allow to set for a further 15 mins. Pipe a small yellow bulb where the petals meet to create the flower centre. Allow the biscuits to dry fully overnight.

TIP: * Use a palette knife to lift the biscuit dough shapes from the work surface to the baking tray to avoid pulling them out of shape. * Using an icing bag coupler allows you to change the size of tip you are using easily without having to transfer it all to a new piping bag. * These biscuits can easily be decorated with royal icing if you prefer.