Christmas tree biscuits

I had seen some Christmas tree biscuits in a magazine – however, these weren’t cut out Christmas tree shapes, but standing trees made from piles of stars. So, while I had the gingerbread mix for the nativity (previous post) on the go I thought I would give these a whirl. I used 4 sizes of star cutters and made 3x each size of the stars for each tree. I then piped around the edge of each biscuit in green royal icing and stacked them up. I was pleased with the result (although the picture makes them look much greener than they actually were. I bagged these up in little cellophane bagels and tied with a ribbon for gifts at Christmas.

Gingerbread nativity

I’m a sucker for bargain baking equipment and in 2012 I picked up a bargain set of nativity set biscuit cutters… So I figured I’d give them a whirl this year. I was a bit apprehensive about making the gingerbread as I’ve often had the experience where it all merges into one giant biscuit on the tray. However, I followed the recipe that came with the set and spent an epic hour or so producing the biscuits. They baked fine and held their shape and I even remembered to make a few extra in case of accidents! Icing the biscuits was also epic – it took me 5 hours doing and evening session – mainly because I had to mix all of the different colours of icing and wash my piping equipment between colours. However, I was pleased with the result.

Traditional biscuit selection!

Where to start with this one… I wanted to bake at the end of the week as I enjoy it, and I enjoy it even more with the small cupcakes as they enjoy it. I needed to bake bread (not pictured here) but we made four of the standard white loaves I have blogged about previously. I mentioned I was going to bake and Mr Cupcake requested homemade custard creams as his secretary had missed out the last time I sent some to work with him… So, this set me thinking about traditional biscuits. I also wanted some to give to a friend who had loaned me some IT kit and some to send in with Mr Cupcake later in the week when he has a special meeting. I had also been keen to try out a friends recipe for homemade hobnob style biscuits, and I thought I would throw in some jammie dodger style biscuits for good measure as I think they look really cute! So, I had a lovely afternoon baking with cupcake no.1 as no.2 had flaked out for a nap so we got lots done!
The custard creams were the Nigella recipe from Feast and I made mini ones this time, but the bigger ones are more custardy somehow, but it was worth a try!
Here are the pictures!

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Valentines Day 2012

I always like to make my lovely hubby some sweet treats to share the love at work with on Valentines Day.  This year I made him a selection of biscuits – his favourite biscuits… I did Nigella recipe custard creams, Hairy Bikers fabulous viennese whirls, and giant jammy dodgers…