Magical Unicorn Biscuits!

Love unicorns and sweet treats? Well, you’re in luck! We set baking afficionado Juliet Sear a Tatty-challenge to recreate our Unicorn Brooch in biscuit-form! Get your icing bags at the ready, as Juliet’s here to share her magical recipe with you…

Hello everyone, Juliet here! I’m sharing my step-by-step guide to create your own unicorn sweet treats, and first up, it’s time to make the vanilla sugar cookie dough! This will make around 16–20 medium cookies.

WHAT YOU’LL NEED: 200g of soft salted butter (at room temperature), 200g of golden caster sugar, 2 teaspoons of vanilla bean paste (Nielsen Massey is the best!), 1 large free-range egg (lightly beaten), 400g plain all-purpose flour.

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F/Gas 4). Pop your butter and sugar into a mixing bowl, then add the vanilla bean paste. Mix on slow or beat by hand until just combined.

2. Add the lightly beaten egg and gently mix until fully incorporated.

3. Sieve all the flour into the mixture and continue to mix until a dough is formed. If the mixture is a little sticky, add a little more flour. If it’s a bit dry, add a few drops of water. You’ll know it’s the right consistency when the dough comes together without leaving sticky traces on the bowl and forms a nice, shiny, pliable ball.

4. Roll the dough out on a clean, floured surface – use plenty of flour to prevent sticking! If you have them, use guide sticks for rolling out the dough. This will ensure you get an even thickness and the cookies bake evenly. Otherwise, just take care to apply even pressure. Roll to a thickness of about 5mm.

5. Once your dough is rolled out, cut your unicorn shapes out with cookie cutter or handmade card template.

6. Use a palette knife or a thin cake slice to pick up your cookies and transfer to a baking sheet lined with baking parchment. Leave a gap of about 2cm between each one.

7. Place your cookies in the oven and bake for around 10–15 minutes. The cookies should be golden brown, firm and springy to touch - then it’s time to cool them on a wire rack!

Now to the fun part… Decorating time!

WHAT YOU’LL NEED: A couple of tablespoons of warmed apricot jam, 1kg pack of ready to roll icing, 500g pack of Silver Spoon Royal Icing Sugar, food dye gel colours (pastel lemon, pink, baby blue, lilac, and turquoise), 5 piping bags with small round nozzles (number 3 or 4 are the perfect size), a sharp knife, a cocktail stick, a touch of non toxic glitter, rolling pin.

1. Take a pack of white ready to roll icing and save about 100g for the horns. Lightly colour your white icing with a little touch of turquoise (or blue and green) food dye gel colouring.

2. Brush your cookies all over with a little jam to make sticky.

3. Roll out the coloured sugar paste to approx 2-3mm thickness and cut out your unicorn shapes and lay flat over the cookie to cover. Press down gently. Add a little indentation for the mouth and the nose detail with a cocktail stick.

4. Roll out the remaining white icing and cut out little horns and add little diagonal impressions for the horn detail. Use a dab of water to stick the horns to your unicorn cookies.

5. Make up the full 500g pack of Silver Spoon Royal Icing Sugar with water until it’s at a soft peak constancy. Roughly split this into five bowls and mix in pastel lemon, pink, baby blue, lilac, and turquoise food dye gel colours into each bowl.

6. Now pop the 5 different colour icing into separate piping bags. Using small round nozzles, pipe each coloured segment of the mane detail. Start at the back of the neck, squeeze the icing bag with strong pressure, then draw the bag forward releasing pressure to taper off each sweep of mane.

7. Sprinkle with a touch of glitter if using and leave to dry overnight. These will last well for a few weeks once dried if you pop them in a cello bag with some colourful ribbon. Enjoy!

Will you be making your own magical biscuits? Show us your creations on Twitter!

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