Spring Florals and Edible Flower Biscuits

There has been so much chat on my social media feeds about last week’s mini heatwave.

We Brits are obsessed with the weather aren’t we? It’s either too wet, hot, cold, too snowy or windy. We don’t ever seem to agree on what’s the perfect temperature.

I think — a bit like queuing — it’s just something that we like talking about; something that’s built into our cultural DNA.

I think, however, we all agree that it’s been a very, very long and drawn out winter. It felt never-ending at times.

I even began (seriously) to think that The Gulf Stream was irreparably broken.

Our garden has been really slow to acknowledge the arrival of spring too.

The borders have lacked their usual early spring colour and it’s really only over the last few days that the blossom has exploded into life and the tulips are beginning to show off their vibrant petals.

That said, I managed to get some spring florals in my life by other means!

I met a lovely lady called Zöe, over on Instagram last year, who’s set up a little business selling little pots of floral goodness.

And best of all, her flowers are edible!

Zöe was kind enough to send me a jar of her first blooms of the year — the perfect antidote to the miserable weather we’d been having — literally a little taste of spring in a jar.

I decided to make some simple edible flower shortbread biscuits — super easy — but with the addition of their beautiful toppings, they looked a million dollars.

It’s a really easy recipe. The shortbread is very quick to make and the decorations are even quicker!

How to Make Edible Flower Biscuits

You will need:

For the biscuits —
125g butter
55g caster sugar
180g plain flour

To decorate —
icing Sugar
cold water
edible flowers
caster sugar

Method:

Heat your oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5.

Beat the butter and the sugar together, then stir in the flour to create a smooth paste.

Roll into a ball, then cover and leave in the fridge to cool for 20 minutes.

Next, gently roll out the ball of chilled dough on a floured work-surface, until around 1cm thick.

Cut into rounds and place onto a baking tray.

Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes (or until the biscuits are a pale golden-brown colour).

Set aside to cool on a wire rack.

To Decorate

I decided not to use egg white to crystallise my edible flowers.

As my twins have an egg allergy, I’m always trying to come up with egg free solutions for things — like our favourite egg-free pancakes and egg-free royal icing — so I decided to try and create the same kind of effect with just sugar and water.

I made a really simple frosting using icing sugar and a little water, and painted it onto each biscuit.

(I’ve not put quantities for this — it really was as simple as mixing a couple of tea-spoons of icing sugar in a little water. Just experiment until you get a consistency that you’re happy with.)

Then, after carefully washing each flower, I pressed the petals into the icing, soaking each one with the sugary liquid, then sprinkling caster sugar onto the top of each one to finish off.

Herbal Remedies

It was lovely decorating the shortbread cookies with edible flowers (and quite a therapeutic pastime); pulling the stems off, then carefully pressing them into the icing. Such a lovely thing to do on an afternoon when rain stops play.

Gently pulling away each petal reminded me of the rhyme we’d say when we were children;

He loves me, he loves me not…

I can say that my boys definitely love me; especially when there is a sweet treat involved.

I had quite an audience.

But despite the two pairs of hungry eyes watching my every move, I put the finished pressed flower cookies well out of the reach of tiny hands, until the icing had hardened and the biscuits were ready.

Floral Fancies

These little edible flower biscuits are the perfect addition to a spring tea-party.

For all their simplicity to make, they look pretty fancy! They’re a real showstopper and make a lovely centrepiece when you want to impress; especially when you pair them with pretty tableware like the Spring Florals range from Laura Ashley.

Or — equally — as in our case (we had no-one to impress), they’re a lovely way to while away an afternoon; both in the making and the eating.

You’d think the texture of the flowers would be a bit odd (in my mind I imaged eating lettuce with shortbread) but they literally melt in the mouth.

{I wonder if they constitute one of your five-a-day?}

Nutritional content aside, they certainly brightened up a grey Easter.

Despite the grey, moody skies overhead, the boys and I had a carpet picnic, surrounded by spring blooms.

Many thanks to the lovely team at Laura Ashley for sending the gorgeous Spring Florals tableware for the purposes of styling this post — good luck in your new role Cat! And thanks too to Zöe at Delicately Edible for the beautiful flowers. If you’d like to make some edible flower biscuits for yourself, head over to her site to snap up a jar of floral goodness of your own.