I don't know about you, but when I was younger I loved iced gems. So, I thought I'd share with you how to make your very own iced gems!

Ingredients (Makes 40-50):

35g unsalted butter, softened
15g caster sugar
50g plain flour
150g royal icing sugar
25-30ml water
Your choice of food colouring gels

First, line a baking tray with a sheet of greaseproof paper and place to one side.

Place the softened butter and caster sugar into s medium-sized mixing bowl. You can either use an electric hand whisk or a wooden spoon to cream the two ingredients together. If you're using a wooden spoon, make sure the butter is super soft to make it easier to mix.

Weigh the flour into the creamed butter and sugar and stir to combine. The mixture may look dry and crumbly at first. Use your hands to bring the mixture together and form it into a ball.

To avoid a mess, roll out the dough between two pieces of cling film. This means that you will not need to flour the worktop or add unnecessary flour to the dough as you roll it out.

Roll the dough to around the thickness of a pound coin. Use either a cake corer or the round end of a piping bag to cut out the small circles. A cake corer is easier to use though as the plunger makes it easy to push out the dough. If you use a piping bag, you may need to use a cocktail stick to carefully push the dough from the nozzle.

Place the circles of dough onto the lined baking tray and place into the fridge to chill for around 30 minutes. This will help to stop the dough spreading or using it's shape in the oven later on.

Preheat the oven to 180 C/Gas 4. Take the tray of dough from the fridge and place the tray straight into the preheated oven. Cook the biscuits for 8-10 minutes. They should stay a pale colour, so keep an eye on them! Once the tiny biscuits are cooked, place onto a wire rack to cool.

Meanwhile, make the royal icing to add a pretty finishing touch. Place the royal icing sugar into a mixing bowl; there isn't really any need to sieve. Carefully measure out the water and pour it into the bowl.

Start to whisk the royal icing sugar and water together with an electric whisk, on a low speed. Slowly increase the speed once the water has been incorporated into the icing sugar. Keep whisking for around 2 minutes, until the mixture starts to from stiff peaks. It will need to hold it's shape when piped.

Separate the royal icing between a few bowls. How many bowl depends on how many colours you're wanting to use. Stir the gel food colouring into the icing - you only need a little to make a bold colour.

As you will only have a small amount of icing for each colour, you can use small piping bags or sandwich bags, fitted with a small flower nozzle.

Simply squeeze a little icing onto each biscuit in a mixture of colours, otherwise keep things simple and use just one colour. Leave the royal icing to set for a few hours before giving them a try! The biscuits will keep in an airtight container for 2 days.

So, I hope you enjoyed this little blast from the past, thank you so much for reading and I'll see you soon,

Love Lou
xxxx

*Disclaimer - The recipe nor photos are mine and were found on www.goodtoknow.co.uk *