Darnley’s Gin sent me a bag of this lovely spice mix to use in some festive baking. To make your own, combine 1 and ½ tsp ground ginger, ½ tsp ground cinnamon, ½ tsp ground cloves, ½ tsp ground coriander, ½ tsp ground cumin, ½ tsp ground mace and 6 juniper berries. Pulse in a spice blender or use a pestle and mortar until the mix is smooth. Use the entire quantity in the below recipe or 4 tsp if making a double or triple batch.
Place the golden syrup, butter and sugar in a saucepan and stir over a medium heat. Once melted together, cool the mixture for 3 to 4 minutes. Meanwhile whisk together the spice mix, bicarbonate of soda and flour in a bowl. Pour the sugary buttery mix into the bowl and add the egg, stirring to a sticky dough. Wrap tightly in clingfilm and place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before using.
Preheat the oven to 200oc/180oc fan and line two large baking trays with baking parchment. Flour a clean work surface and cut the dough in half (this makes it easier to roll). Sprinkle the dough and a rolling pin with flour and roll to the thickness of a pound coin. Using a star cutter, cut as many shapes as possible from the dough, rerolling the scraps and then using the second half of the dough. Space the stars well apart on the tray and place in the oven to bake for 12 minutes. Remove from the oven once golden and cool for a few minutes on the tray before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with the remaining stars.
Once the biscuits have cooled, make the icing. In a bowl whisk together the icing sugar, 1 tsp of gin and enough water to create a thick icing roughly the consistency of toothpaste. Place a narrow piping nozzle in a disposable piping bag and cut the bag around half a centimetre from the tip then spoon in the icing.
For the splattered stars, pipe an outline around the edge of each star and leave to air dry for about five minutes. For the snowflakes, pipe a simple linear design with some dots for decoration, leaving to air dry. You should have enough icing to do 12 snowflakes and 12 stars.
Snip the tip off the icing bag and squeeze the remaining icing back into the bowl, adding more water a tablespoon at a time until it is still viscous but runny. To flood the star biscuits, spoon icing a teaspoon at a time into the middle of each star and using the back of the spoon or a skewer, tease the icing into to corners to create a neat shape. Leave to dry completely.
To decorate, use a clean paintbrush to dust the icing snowflake shapes with the pearlised edible powder to create a sheen. For the splattered stars, mix ½ tsp gold edible glitter with a few drops of gin and a little lemon juice until well mixed together, then load up the brush and flick it firmly downwards over the iced biscuits to create irregular splatters. Leave to air dry then transfer the biscuits to an airtight box where they will keep for five days.
Recipe by Victoria Sponge Pease Pudding at http://victoriaspongepeasepudding.com/baking/spiced-gin-gingerbread-stars-and-snowflakes/