Ingredients
Royal icing
Method
1.To make biscuits: Beat butter, extract and sugar in small bowl with electric mixer until combined. Beat in eggs, one at a time; beat only until combined. (Do not overbeat; mixture will curdle at this stage, but will come together later.) Transfer mixture to large bowl. Stir in sifted flours in two batches; mix to a soft dough. Knead dough on floured surface until smooth cover, refrigerate 30 minutes.
2.Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F. Grease and line oven trays with baking paper.
3.Roll dough between sheets of baking paper until 5mm (¼-inch) thick. Using teacup and teapot cutters, cut 10 of each shape from dough, re-rolling dough as necessary.
4.Place shapes, about 2.5cm (1-inch) apart, on trays. Bake about 15 minutes or until biscuits are firm and browned lightly. Stand biscuits on trays for 5 minutes; lift onto wire racks to cool.
5.Knead ready-made icing on surface dusted with a little cornflour until icing loses its stickiness. Divide icing into 5 equal portions. Tint each portion with one of the colourings; enclose, separately, in plastic wrap.
6.Roll each icing portion, separately, on cornfloured surface until 3mm thick. Using cutters, cut 10 teacups and 10 teapots from icings, re-rolling icing as necessary. Reserve all icing scraps, enclose, separately, in plastic wrap.
7.Working with 2 or 3 shapes at a time, lightly brush tops of biscuits with egg white; position icing shapes on biscuits.
8.To make royal icing, sift the icing sugar through a fine sieve. Lightly beat the egg white in a small bowl with an electric mixer until mixture is just broken up; do not whip into peaks. Beat in the icing sugar, a tablespoon at a time, to get the required consistency. When icing reaches the right consistency, mix in the lemon juice using a wooden spoon.
9.Fit piping bag with tube. Fill the bag three-quarters full with royal icing; pipe outlines and lines on biscuits, as pictured.
10.Re-roll icing scraps on surface dusted with cornflour until 1mm thick; using blossom cutters, cut 20 small and 10 large blossoms from icing. Secure 10 small blossoms to large blossoms with a little royal icing; secure to teapot biscuits. Secure remaining small blossoms to teacup biscuits with a little royal icing.
11.Pipe a dot of royal icing in the centre of each flower; using tweezers, position a pearl in flower centre. Pipe dots around flowers on teapots; pipe dots in teapot lids.
12.Once decorated and dried, layer the biscuits carefully between sheets of baking paper in an airtight container. They will keep for about 4 weeks at room temperature.
EQUIPMENT: 6cm x 9cm (2½-inch x 3¾-inch) teacup cutter; 6.5cm x 7.5cm (2¾-inch x 3-inch) teapot cutter; pastry brush; small piping bag; small (number 2) plain piping tube; 1.4cm (¾-inch) blossom cutter; 2.5cm (1-inch) blossom cutter; tweezers. You could use a paper piping bag without a tube to pipe the decorations on the biscuits. The `pearlized blush sugar pearls’ are small edible pearls, and are available from cake decorating suppliers. The only tricky part to making these biscuits is the piping; practise on a flat surface first, before piping onto the biscuits.
Note
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