I’m back with another festive bake this week and this time I am revisiting an idea I first made a number of years ago. Florence has been asking to make biscuits a lot lately and frankly I’m not all that good at making them but after a few attempts and a couple of different recipes I’ve finally mastered a really tasty batch of Reindeer biscuits that make a perfect little Christmassy treat. They’d be great for parties or baking up for little gifts for teachers, colleagues or even your little one’s class mates or play group friends.

I made a couple of adjustments to this recipe I found on the biscuiteers website – ( I have previously worked with them but I stumbled upon this recipe by a happy coincidence and haven’t been asked to include them here). I didn’t use any vanilla flavouring in the actual bake as the frosting we use to decorate them is vanilla based and I thought it might be a bit OTT to have it in both. Also, I used slightly less golden syrup and added a splash of water to the mix for a better, easier to mould dough consistency.

The decoration was the result of a bit of trial and error but I really love the way they turned out. Especially since I’ve never used a piping bag successfully before!

Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer Biscuits

November 24, 2019

Servings: 24

Difficulty: Easy

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By: ami elizabeth

Ingredients

• For the Biscuits
• 350g plain flour
• 100g self-raising flour
• 125g granulated sugar
• 125g salted butter softened, diced
• 100g golden syrup
• 1 large egg
• For the decoration
• Betty Crocker Vanilla Frosting
• 5 tbsp Cocoa Powder
• 24 Red Smarties

Directions

• Step 1 For the Biscuits
• Step 2 Sift the flours together into a bowl and mix in the sugar.
• Step 3 Add the butter to the bowl and rub together with your finger tips until the mixture resembles bread crumbs ensuring all of the butter is mixed in evenly.
• Step 4 Make a well in the centre of the mixture and pour in the lightly beaten egg, the syrup and 2-3 tbsp of cold water.
• Step 5 Mix together, gathering any loose flour from the edges of your bowl until you can form a ball with the dough.
• Step 6 Roll out the dough until you’ve got an even sheet about 2cm in thickness and using a ginger bread man cookie cutter cut out 24 cookies and bake on an oven tray lined with grease proof paper in the centre of a preheated oven (170 degrees). Bake for 15-20 minutes or until they’re golden brown.
• Step 7 For the decoration
• Step 8 Allow the biscuits to cool.
• Step 9 Spoon 1/3 of the frosting into a bowl and add 2 heaped table spoons of the cocoa powder along with a splash of milk. Mix together until you have a creaming consistency and the powder is well mixed in.
• Step 10 Repeat with the other 2/3 of the frosting, adding 5 heaped table spoons of the cocoa powder.
• Step 11 Turn the biscuits upside down and Pipe the lighter mixture onto the bottom half of what will make your reindeer’s face.
• Step 12 Then fill up the circle with the darker mixture. Using the edge of a spatula or the flat side of a dinner knife smooth the icing over.
• Step 13 Using the rest of the darker mixture, pipe the reindeer ears and antlers on to what would be the gingerbread man’s legs and arms.
• Step 14 Finally add a two little white sprinkles to each biscuit for the eyes and a red smartie to make the all important shiny nose!

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As I type this, we are on the road to a little weekend away. It’s been such a long time since we went away just us, and it’s the first time we’ve ever taken William so I’m hoping for a truly special weekend of making memories with my favourite people. I mentioned on Instagram that we are having a bit of a Julia Donaldson themed summer as Florence’s imagination has suddenly been captured by her stories and one of the things on our Summer bucket list was to meet the Gruffalo. Well, after a day of exploring and visiting family today, we are heading to Chessington to do just that! So so excited.

So what better road trip snacks to take than these homemade Gruffalo Cupcakes! I quickly rustled them up this morning ready to pack up in the picnic basket and I was so pleased with how they turned out (usually I’m a bit of a baking disaster!) I thought I’d share how I made them with you guys.

I’ve also packed ‘Scrambled Snake’ pasta, ‘Little brown Mouse’ Cheeses sticks & ‘Roasted Fox’ snack size pies. I might share the recipes to all of these too in the next week or so.

I’ll warn you now, I’m a bit of a convenience baker. As a busy Mama with very little baking skill I am not ashamed to admit to using some shop bought packet ingredients so if you’re anything like me, you’ll love this recipe.

The recipe

Ingredients

125g self raising flour

125g caster sugar

125g softened butter / margarine

2 large eggs

Betty Crocker Chocolate Fudge Frosting

Ready made orange modelling icing

Chocolate sprinkles & balls

White chocolate sprinkles

Mini marshmallows (12, chopped in half diagonally)

Method

Preheat the oven to 180• Combine the flour, caster sugar, butter & eggs in a large mixing bowl. Whisk together until you have a smooth mixture.

Place 12 cupcake cases into a muffin tin and spoon equal amounts of the mixture into each one and pop in the oven for 12-15 minutes or until they’re risen and golden brown. I always do the knife test to check there’s no raw mixture inside.

Once baked, remove from the oven and leave to cool.

Once cooled it’s time to decorate! Using a spatula or straight side of a dinner knife spread chocolate frosting across the top of each cake. For these I scooped about a teaspoon of frosting onto each and then spread it in circular motions. Remember, it doesn’t have to be neat as you’re making a furry monster!

Next, make 24 pea sized balls from the orange icing by rolling small amounts in the palms of your hands. Add a chocolate ball sprinkle to make the pupil and then put the eyes in place on top of each cake.

Cut 12 mini marshmallows diagonally in half and place them on either side at the top of the cakes to make the Gruffalo’s horns.

Squeeze a dot of green writing icing in the middle to represent the ‘poisonous wart on the end of his nose followed by a handful of white chocolate sprinkles to make his terrible teeth in his terrible jaws!

Finally shake some chocolate sprinkles all over each cake for his fur.

These Gruffalo inspired cupcakes make the perfect snack for a day out at one of the many gruffalo trails & forests across the UK as well as fab party treats! They’re super tasty and bound to be a hit with any Gruffalo fans!