Cupcake Cookies

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 170˚C (325˚F) Gas 3.

2. To make the chocolate spiced gingerbread, heat together the golden syrup, treacle and egg yolk in a small bowl.

3, Sift the flour, baking powder, cocoa, spices and salt into a food processor (or into a mixing bowl) and add the butter. When the mixture starts to look like sand and there are no lumps of butter, add the sugar and almonds and pulse (or mix with your fingers) again for 30 seconds to incorporate. With the motor running, add the egg-yolk mixture and pulse (or mix with a wooden spoon) until starting to clump together.

4. Tip the mixture out onto a very lightly floured surface and knead gently to bring together into a smooth ball.

5. Flatten the dough into a disc, wrap in clingfilm/plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1–2 hours.

6. Lightly dust a clean, dry surface with flour and roll the dough evenly to a thickness of 2–3 mm/1⁄8 inch. Use the cutters to stamp out as many cookies as possible from the dough, cutting each one as close as possible to the next one. Arrange the cookies on the prepared baking sheets. Gather the dough scraps together, knead lightly, re-roll and stamp out more cookies until all the dough has been used up. Bake the gingerbread in batches on the middle shelf of the preheated oven for 10–12 minutes or until firm and browned at the edges. Allow the cookies to cool completely on the baking sheets before icing.

7. To make royal icing using royal icing mix, tip the royal icing mix into a large mixing bowl and add the water gradually, mixing with a whisk or wooden spoon until the icing is smooth and thick enough that it will hold a ribbon trail when the spoon or whisk is lifted from the bowl. This will be the consistency that you need for piping outlines or details on the cookies. You may need to add slightly more or less water to achieve the right balance.

8. To make royal icing using icing/confectioners’ sugar, follow the method above, but use the egg whites in place of the water.
Leave one quarter of the icing in the mixing bowl and divide the remaining icing between 3 bowls. Using the food colouring pastes, tint one bowl of icing yellow, one brown and one pink. Spoon 3 tablespoons of the yellow icing into a disposable piping bag. Take half the cookies and pipe outlines around the bottom half of each one in the shape of a cupcake case. Repeat this with the pink icing and the remaining cookies. Spoon 2 tablespoons of the brown icing into another piping bag and pipe outlines around the top of half the cookies to resemble cupcake frosting.

9. Repeat with the white icing and remaining cookies. Allow to dry for 10 minutes. Flood the insides of the pink cupcake cases with yellow icing and the yellow cases with pink icing. Allow to dry for 20 minutes, then pipe vertical lines in contrasting colours.

10. Thicken the remaining brown and white icings slightly by beating it
vigorously for a minute or by adding icing/confectioners’ sugar. Pipe squiggles and swirls on the top half of each cookie. Decorate with sprinkles and chocolate drops. Allow to dry completely before serving.

Decorated Gingerbread by Annie Rigg. Ryland Peters & Small, $15.95. www.rylandpeters.com. Photography by Tara Fisher.