Christmas Pudding Shortbread

Christmas Pudding is my absolute favourite and something that I look forward to year round but yesterday, I was in a creative mood and wanted to bake something that I could use as a vessel for festive decoration. That said, taste was crucial too and that's why I chose chocolate shortbread. I know the actual biscuit is delicious and they have the perfect durability for getting imaginative.

These Christmas Pudding rounds are adorable in my opinion and with such a simple design it's hard to go wrong. If you do have a go, I'd love to see in the comments below.

Ingredients (Makes about 25)

270g plain flour

100g self raising flour

75g cocoa powder

125g granulated sugar

125g butter (at room temperature)

125g golden syrup

1 large egg (beaten)

For the Icing

500g royal icing powder

70 ml water

100g fondant icing (shop-bought)

Red and green food dye

Method

1. Add the flours, cocoa and sugar into a large bowl.

2. Then rub in the butter with your fingertips, to resemble breadcrumbs.

3. Make a well in the centre, in which you can add the syrup and egg.

4. Mix thoroughly to form a ball. (D0n't worry if the mix is a bit wet or crumbly).

5. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to about 5mm thick.

6. Cut into rounds then place them on a lined baking sheet and chill in the fridge for 20 mins.

7. Preheat the oven to 170C then bake for 15-20 mins then cool on a wire rack.

Meanwhile, make the icing. For this recipe, you'll actually need three types but panic not because one can be bought (cheating but much less off a faff) and the other two are the same recipe but just different thicknesses.

1. First, we need to make a thick royal icing to outline the Christmas pudding shapes. This prevents the thinner icing from running off the biscuit and makes them look really neat.

2. Mix 500g of royal icing powder with about 60ml water. Mix until quite thick, you may need to add a tad more.

3. Spoon into a piping bag with a really thin nozzle (I actually used a zip lock bag with the corner snipped off).

4. Carefully, outline the whole circular biscuit then, about half way up, outline the curves to look like the Christmas pudding's icing.

5. Leave to cool and harden for 10 mins.

Ooooh the fun part! Many mini holly leaves and berries...!

1. Dye about 3/4 of the fondant icing green by kneading it with some green food dye. Keep your hands from getting sticky by clapping them together with icing sugar.

2. To make the leaves, roll a small ball of the green icing, pinch it into a diamond, slightly flatten then with a knife, create indents.

3. Make some berries too by dying some icing red and rolling small berries.

4. Chill in the fridge while you make the final icing.

Now for the looser icing to fill the top half of the biscuit.

1. Simply scrape the left over icing back into the bowl and add 10ml of water.

2. Mix thoroughly until it totally smooth.

3. Spoon about a teaspoon into the enclosed section section of the biscuit and using a tooth pick, spread it around evenly.

4. Then top with the holly leaves while the icing is still wet.

4. Finally, leave to cool and harden.