Gingerbread star tree
Gingerbread star tree
175g dark muscovado sugar 85g golden syrup
100g slightly salted butter 350g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tbsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 egg, beaten
200g royal icing sugar
You will need a set of star cookie cutters (8-10), ranging from 12cm-2cm, or make templates from paper and cut them out yourself
1 Put the sugar, syrup and butter in a saucepan. Bring to a simmer, then bubble for 1-2 mins, stirring. Set aside to cool for 10 mins.
2 Tip the flour, bicarb and spices into a large bowl. Add the syrup mixture and the egg, stir to bring everything together, then gently knead in the bowl until smooth. The dough will feel a little soft, but will firm up once cooled. Wrap and chill for at least 30 mins.
3 Remove the dough from the fridge and leave at room temperature until softened. Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6 and line two baking trays with baking parchment.
4 Working with half the dough at a time (keeping the remaining dough well wrapped), roll out to the thickness of a £1 coin. Cut out 10-12 stars in descending size, re-rolling the offcuts if you need to. Arrange over the trays and bake for 8 mins until a few shades darker and puffed up a little. Cool on the trays for 5 mins, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Will keep, un-iced, in an airtight container for up to two weeks.
5 Mix the icing sugar with enough water to make a thick, pipeable icing. Transfer to a piping bag and decorate (see pic, left). Pipe a blob of icing in the middle of each biscuit and stack them to make a tree, sticking the smallest star on top, standing upright.
PER SERVING 191 kcals • fat 5g • saturates 3g • carbs 35g • sugars 21g • fibre 1g • protein 2g • salt 0.2g
White (& green) chocolate trees
1 Melt 75g white chocolate in the microwave, or in a small bowl over a pan of simmering water. Stir in a spot of green food colouring gel if you want to make them green. Transfer to a piping bag and leave to firm up for a few mins (this will make the trees thicker). Line a baking sheet with parchment.
2 Snip off the end of the piping bag and quickly pipe the chocolate backwards and forwards in thin lines to create little Christmas trees (ours were 7-10cm tall).
3 Decorate with sprinkles and chill until you’re ready to decorate the cake. Push them into the white chocolate topping before it sets.
PER TREE 20 kcals • fat 1g • saturates 1g • carbs 2g • sugars 2g • fibre none • protein 0.3g • salt none