Biscuiteers Best of British Jubilee Biscuits

For the biscuits: 

Preheat oven to 150°C/130°C fan/gas mark

Line two baking trays with greaseproof paper.

Put the sugar, butter, golden syrup, egg and vanilla into a large mixing bowl. Mix with an electric mixer on a low speed for 3 minutes, until there are only small lumps of butter visible, then turn the speed of the mixer up to medium for 1 minute to reduce the size of the butter lumps.

Sift both types of flour into the bowl and mix on a low speed for 1 minute, or until combined, then turn the mixer up to medium speed for 30 seconds, or until the dough clings together and the sides of the bowl are clean.

Turn the dough out onto a clean work surface. Divide into two and squash into even, flat discs. Cover with cling film and chill, or use immediately.

Roll out the dough to an even thickness between two sheets of greaseproof paper and cut out your biscuit shapes according to your chosen design.

Carefully pick up each biscuit with a palette knife and place onto the lined trays. Space the biscuits out evenly – they will spread a little when baking.

Place the trays into the preheated oven and bake for 20–30 minutes (check at 20 minutes).

When the biscuits are evenly cooked and just beginning to turn a golden colour, remove from the oven and transfer the whole sheet of greaseproof paper to a cooling rack. Do this very carefully, as the biscuits will be fragile and hot! Allow to cool completely before icing.

Tip: If you want to experiment with flavours, the vanilla in this recipe can be replaced with lovely things such as grated lemon or orange zest, coffee or cinnamon. Just keep in mind that you need a dough that bakes evenly and is smooth in texture, so avoid chunky ingredients.

For the royal icing: 

Combine the ingredients in a mixing bowl, adding the liquids first – add 100ml water to the bowl to start with (or most of the fresh egg whites). Add the dry ingredients and whisk for 5 minutes with an electric whisk, or for longer with a wooden spoon. Whisk slowly initially, to avoid clouds of icing sugar!

Continue whisking, gradually adding more water (or egg white), until you achieve the desired consistency – a smooth, bright white paste, which is the thickness of toothpaste (you may need to use less or more water than the recipe states – go slowly and judge when you’ve reached the correct point).

Use immediately, or cover with cling film and chill, for no longer than 24 hours.

For this recipe you will need to divide your recipe into half ‘line’ icing and half ‘flood’ icing.

Line icing is the consistency of toothpaste and is used for outlining your biscuits and adding detail. Flood icing is the consistency of custard and used to fill larger areas or sections of the biscuit with a smooth, shiny surface. We use a piping bag cut at an angle at the tip to achieve the thin, crisp line in line icing and a squeezy bottle for flood icing.

To make line icing you don’t need to change the consistency of the royal icing. Simply look at how many colour variations you need (detailed below) and divide up the icing into clean, dry bowls and add food colouring.

To make the flood icing, place the royal icing in a large bowl. Add water, a few drops at a time, stirring constantly, until you have a pourable mixture of the same consistency as custard. Check how many colour variations you need (detailed below) and divide up into clean, dry bowls and add food colouring.

For the bunting decoration:

Line: light blue / red / white

Flood: light blue

Use light blue line icing to pipe the outline of your biscuits. Leave to dry for 10 minutes at room temperature.

Once dry, flood the biscuits with light blue flood icing.

Place the biscuits onto a baking tray and into an oven set to the lowest temperature (50°C/gas mark ¼) for 40 minutes, or until the icing has set hard.

Use red line icing to pipe a red cross, and then outline with white line icing either side. Use white line icing to add a diagonal line in each blue section of your bunting. Allow to fully dry.

For the crown decoration: 

Line: white

Use white line icing to pipe the crown shape onto your biscuit. Don’t forget to add details, such as dots around the top edge, and a cross.

While the icing is wet, sprinkle over some sugar and leave to dry at room temperature for 10 minutes. Carefully tap off any excess sugar when dry.

For the Queen’s guard decoration:

Line: black / red / cream / white / beige

Flood: cream / black / red

Pipe the guard’s bearskin onto the biscuit with black line icing and outline his trousers. Pipe a jacket shape with red line icing and the outline of the head in cream line icing. Leave to dry for 10 minutes at room temperature.

Once dry, flood the head shape with cream flood icing, the trousers and bearskin with black flood and the jacket with red flood.

Place the biscuit onto a baking tray and into an oven set to the lowest temperature (50°C/gas mark ¼) for 40 minutes, or until the icing has set hard.

Use red line icing to define the jacket sleeves and waist and white line icing to ice the buttons and central line.

Use beige line icing to pipe a chin strap, hands and epaulettes. Add dots of black for the eyes. Allow to dry.