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I’m slightly obsessed with roses at the
moment. The roses this year look and smell amazing and after making my rose and
pistachio cake the other day I was reminded just how delicious the flavour is.
I’m also a bit fed up of cake at the moment if I’m honest. We’re in the hottest
summer we’ve had in seven years and it’s just to hot to eat a big whopping
slice of cake so I came up with these little beauties. Makes about 20,
depending on the size of your cutter.
Ingredients:
For the shortbread
5oz (125g) butter
7 ¼ oz (180g) plain flour
Zest of one lemon
1-2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 ¾ oz (65g) caster sugar
For the rose buttercream:
5oz (125g) butter
10oz (250g) icing sugar
¾ teaspoon rose flavour syrup or a couple
teaspoons rose water
Few drops pink food colouring
First make the shortbread. Cream together
butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the lemon zest and one teaspoon of
juice.
Sift in the flour and combine to form a
dough. Cling wrap and put in the fridge for ½ hour. Meanwhile, stick the oven
on at 170C / Gas Mark 3.
Roll out the dough to a thickness of around
5mm and cut into rounds. If you’re having difficulty rolling it out because it’s
too dry then add another teaspoon of juice. Use a small cutter. Mine is about
5cm in diameter. Remember you’ll be doubling these up and putting buttercream
in the middle. You don’t need them any bigger!
Put on a tray and put back in the fridge
for about 15 mins. Then remove and bake in the oven for 12-15 mins.
Allow to cool on a rack and make the
buttercream. Put all the ingredients in a food processor and whiz till smooth.
It’s better to add your flavouring a bit at a time so you can get it right.
When your biscuits are cool, pipe the
buttercream onto the underside of one biscuit and gently sandwich with another.
Don’t use too much buttercream of it will smudge out of the sides and be too
sickly.
If 20 are too many, don’t worry these
freeze (fully assembled) perfectly. This makes them especially good for tea
parties. They look very pretty stacked on top of one another on cake stands. I
made some of these with my four year old (who was surprisingly good at piping!)
as a present for her nursery teachers. And made decorated a box to put them in.
They were much appreciated!
