Union Jack biscuits for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee

So hopefully you’re planning your big Diamond Jubilee party about now.  We’re hoping to have a barbecue with the fam, and obviously I’ll be decorating the outside of the house with little flags (because that’s how I roll), but also I wanted some special sweet treats for my guests.  These little flags (I originally made them for William and Catherine’s wedding) are perfect.  And no, it doesn’t matter if the icing splodges a bit.  In fact, it just adds to their charm:

You will need:

150g butter

50g caster sugar

1tsp vanilla extract

250g plain flour

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees/gas 4. Line a large baking tray with greaseproof paper (or use a silicone product like Bake-o-glide).

Cream the butter and sugar together until it’s really light and fluffy. Add  in the vanilla, then the sifted flour. Bring the dough together with your hands (it will seem crumbly at first, but soon comes together).

Roll the dough out on a floured surface until 1/2 cm thick and cut into rectangles. Place on the prepared trays and bake for about 15 minutes, until just golden. Allow to cool completely, then prepare your icing.

You will need three bowls of icing: red, white and blue.  Or pink, white and pastel blue look really nice too.  It’s best to just make a mahoosive bowl of white, then split them into three.  Just pile icing sugar up, then splash water in until you get a nice thick consistency (too runny and it’ll be a disaster).  To colour the icing, it’s best to use food colouring pastes as they’re stronger and less runny than liquids so they won’t dilute your icing too much.

For the icing

Firstly, as I’ve already said, don’t worry too much.  After several messy attempts (that you can see above), we found that it’s best to cover the whole biscuit with white icing, allow it to dry completely, then pipe on a red cross, then a red X, allow to dry, and then add the blue accents.  But hey, they’re your biscuits – experiment!  A red +, then four white squares, then blue accents worked quite well too. We put our icing into disposable plastic icing bags and cut off a tiny corner, to save ruining my cloth piping bags.   It’s definitely worth having a picture of a Union Jack flag there for reference.  Here’s one I made earlier.

So whatever you’re doing, have a great party!  I’ll be lifting a gin to Her Maj and I hope you will too

8 Responses to “Union Jack biscuits for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee”

1. Union Jack biscuits for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee | Light Dragoons says:

   May 30, 2012 at 9:24 pm

   [...] Read the article: Union Jack biscuits for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee [...]
2. Kate says:

   June 3, 2012 at 7:16 pm

   Totally agree about the sploged icing, proves they’re not from Tesco’s too! I’m sure her maj would approve
   • English Mum says:

     June 6, 2012 at 10:02 am

     Haha thanks Kate
3. Dominic says:

   June 5, 2012 at 1:38 am

   That Union jack’s completely wrong, and would still be wrong if you turned it upside down. Lovely cakes though.
   • English Mum says:

     June 6, 2012 at 10:02 am

     Hey Dominic. Oh god yes, they’re completely wrong. I’m afraid ‘as near as dammit’ is as good as I can get with icing! And thanks x
   • English Mum says:

     June 6, 2012 at 3:56 pm

     Oh wait, no, you’re right – it’s got two thick white lines on the top side! Will have to change it now and nobody will know what we’re on about!! x
4. Kate On Thin Ice says:

   June 5, 2012 at 7:01 pm

   Thanks for recipe and here is to splodges.
   Yes, easy to forget what Union Jack actually looks like so a great tip there
   • English Mum says:

     June 6, 2012 at 10:03 am

     Thanks Kate. And yes, here’s to splodges!