Baking with Kids: Marbled Iced Biscuits

Begin by preheating your oven to 350°F/320°F Fan/Gas 4.

To make the dough for the cookies, begin by combining the butter and sugar in the large bowl. Mix the ingredients until they are smooth.

Carefully separate the egg yolk and white. An easy method of separating eggs is by breaking the egg onto a plate and placing an egg cup over the yolk. Whilst holding the egg cup, pour the white into a separate bowl. Make sure you keep the egg white as it will be needed for the icing.

Then, mix the egg yolk into the butter and sugar mixture.

Add the zest of one lemon into the bowl, along with the sifted plain flour. Mix the dough until it forms a dough. Once a dough has been formed knead the dough with your hands into a round shape. Wrap the ball of dough in cling film and leave to chill in the fridge for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, line two large tray from our enamel with baking paper.

Dust your work surface with flour and roll out the dough until is about the same thickness as a pound coin.

A great activity for children is allowing them to cut out the shapes of the cookie. Use cookie cutters or go freehand to create a selection of interesting designs.

Place the cookies onto your baking trays or serving trays and bake in the oven for 12–14 minutes. Ensure you keep a close eye on the cookies whilst they are in the oven as you want them to have just begun to turn golden brown when you get them out of the oven.

Resist the temptation to eat the cookies straight away and leave them to cool completely on the tray or pans they were baked in.

Whisk the egg white with an electric whisk until it creates soft peaks. Then, add half of the icing sugar and continue whisking until the icing sugar is fully incorporated.

Add the remaining icing sugar and the lemon juice from the lemon you previously used the zest from. Whisk this mixture until it is stiff, this can take up to 10 minutes.

Once the icing mixture is stiff begin to add the water. Make sure you only add 1
tsp at a time. Keep adding water until your icing is at the consistency where a trail of icing takes 10 seconds to disappear back into the bowl.

Use a skewer or cocktail stick to dot and swirl small amounts of gel food colourings onto the top of the icing.

Finally, dip the cool cookies into the icing and leave them to set on a cooling rack. You may need to add more food colouring to your icing as you go.

Allow the icing to set overnight and then serve.