Strawberry milkshake honey butterflies

My life is not pink. Not in any way. It is full of spiders and snails and stones and sticks. For I am the mother of boys, and I am truly happy with my lot. However, I recently became godmother to a little girl so I now get to indulge my girlie side through her. These are the biscuits I will be making for her first birthday. If pink isn’t the favourite colour then banana milkshake powder works equally well.

FOR THE BISCUITS:

INGREDIENTS

75g butter

75g soft light brown sugar

30ml honey

225g plain flour, plus extra for dusting

1 tablespoon water

FOR THE ICING:

65g butter

185g icing sugar

25g strawberry milkshake powder

sugar sprinkles

METHOD

Melt the butter, sugar and honey in a pan over a very low heat until dissolved. Use a wooden spoon to stir in the flour until you have a very stiff dough, adding water to pull it together. Add a tiny bit more if it is still crumbly, but the less water the better. Wrap in cling film and chill for 30 minutes.

Make the icing. Beat the butter in a bowl until soft then add the icing sugar and milkshake powder a tablespoon at a time, mixing after each addition. You want a very stiff icing so don’t beat until it is light and fluffy; it should be mouldable not pipeable. If it won’t come together, scrunch it up with your hands.

Preheat the oven to 170°C and line 2 baking trays with non-stick greaseproof paper. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to a 5 mm thickness. Don’t worry if it cracks, just squash it back together. Cut out twenty 6 cm diameter circles and cut 10 of them in half to make wings. Place the circles and semi-circles on the trays about 2 cm apart in case they spread during baking. Bake in the oven for 10–15 minutes until just starting to brown. Leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

Assemble the biscuits using 25 g of icing per butterfly. Use some icing to make 2 thin sausages to attach to the straight edges of a pair of wings, then squash into a plate filled with sprinkles. Use the remainder of the icing to form two balls and squash these onto the middle of the circular biscuit base, leaving a 5 mm gap. Balance the wings in the middle of the balls, so that the decorated edges are facing out. Squash down gently and repeat with the remaining icing and biscuits. Leave to dry until the revellers descend.

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