Recipes

Follow these steps

• Cream the butter and caster sugar together in a large bowl using an electric mixer, until well combined. Add the egg a little at a time beating constantly. Stir in the vanilla paste then add the flour and mix carefully to form a soft dough.
• Briefly knead the dough to bring it together then wrap in cling film & chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 190degC / 170degC fan. Line two baking sheets with baking paper and set to one side. Dust a clean work top with a little flour then roll out the dough to the thickness of a £1 coin. Using a heart shaped cutter, cut out as many biscuits as you can and arrange evenly on the prepared baking sheets. Gather up the scraps and roll & cut again until all the dough is used up.
• Bake the biscuits for 10 - 12 minutes until lightly golden around the edges. Remove from the oven and leave to cool on the trays for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
• Place the icing sugar, egg whites and lemon juice in a large bowl and beat together using an electric whisk until smooth, and stiff peaks form. Add a little water if the icing seems too thick. Scoop a quarter of the icing into a separate bowl and leave to one side.
• Add a little of the pink colour to the larger portion of icing, just enough to create a baby pink colour. Spoon a little of the pink icing into a piping bag and pipe a thin line around the edge of each biscuit to create a border. Squeeze any remaining icing from the piping bag back into the bowl and add a little water to create a more runny consistency. Spoon a teaspoon into the centre of each biscuit and tease out to the piped border using a cocktail stick. Leave to air dry.
• Colour the smaller amount of icing red and spoon into a piping bag fitted with a small round nozzle. Pipe an outline of a heart around the edge of the biscuit, then write your own choice of love notes inside. Leave to dry completely then store in an airtight container for up to 5 days.