Butterfly Cookies

Nothing spells summer like butterflies. One of my strongest memories of primary school is catching caterpillars and putting them in lid-holed jars, observing them turning them into chrysalis and then delightfully coming into school to have them fluttering at the windows on sunny mornings. I saw the first butterfly of the season last week and so I wanted to recreate them in cookies.

Spiced biscuits - From Gizzi's Kitchen Magic

250g butter softened
110g golden caster sugar
1 free range egg yolk
1/2 tsp ground ginger, cinnamon and mixed spice each
300g plain flour

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180oC. Beat the sugar and butter in a bowl with an electric beaters until creamy, about 5 minutes.
2. Crack the egg yolk in, add a heaped tablespoon of flour and beat until smooth and no traces of yellow yolk.
3. Sift the flour and mix until the dough comes together in a ball. Put in the mixture in the fridge in cling film for half an hour.

For the Royal Icing
500g icing sugar
2 medium egg whites
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp water.

Method:
1. Sift the icing sugar. Add the egg whites and lemon juice and beat together.
2. Beat for 4-5 minutes.
3. The icing will probably be very stiff. Add the water if you need and beat again until smooth and shiny.

Pipe the outline of the wings with a small nozzle. Allow to dry for a half an hour. Add water to the icing so that it is a little lighter then use a teaspoon to spoon into the wings and tease out with a cocktail stick.

Add details including the body and head.