Strawberry Fields Cookies

These cute cookies put heart cutters to good use – they would be perfect for a summer tea party or just to delight the children. This recipe makes 24 vanilla sugar cookies.

For the cookies:

• 225g butter, softened
• 225g caster sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste, or the seeds of 1 vanilla pod or 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 375g plain flour

To make and decorate:

• Sugarpaste: red, white and green
• Cutters: large and small heart cookie, small square
• Gold sugar dragees

To make the cookies:

1, Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and mix well. Add the flour and thoroughly mix to form a dough.

2, Split the dough in half. Roll out each half between two sheets of greaseproof paper to appox 4mm thick and place in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes or until firm.

3, Cut out 12 large and 12 small heart cookies. Place on a greased or lined baking tray, chill for a further 15 minutes or until they are completely hard again (the chilling stops the cookies from spreading and will help them keep their shape while baking).

4, Bake in the oven – 180oC/350oF/Gas 4 for approximately 10 minutes until the cookies are golden brown on the edges. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the tray. If the cookies have spread out of shape, re-cut them with your cutter or a knife while still warm.

Tip: If you don’t want to use all the dough straight away, wrap well in cling film and freeze for up to three months. To save you time, why not freeze it ready rolled out between two sheets of greaseproof paper?

To decorate:

1, Take a small ball of red sugarpaste and knead into the white sugarpaste to create a pink blush colour.

2, Roll out the red sugarpaste to a 3mm thickness. Cut out six large hearts using the large heart cookie cutter and six small hearts using the small heart cookie cutter. Repeat using the pink blush sugarpaste.

3, Brush the top of each cookie with a little water and attach the sugarpaste hearts in place, pressing down lightly to secure.

4, Roll out the green sugarpaste to 2mm. Using the heart cutters again, cut out 24 strawberry hulls (12 large, 12 small) using the top part of the cutters only.

5, Trim down the cut outs and take out the ‘V’ shapes using the corner of a small square cutter. Secure in place on the strawberries with a dab of water.

6, Shape 24 stalks from the green sugarpaste and fix in place with water.

7, Using the end of your paintbrush, make small indentations for the seeds. Apply a dot of water to each indentation and fill with a gold dragee. Press each dragee down lightly with your fingertip to help them stay in place.

Tip: Rub over the top of the sugarpaste hearts with an icing smoother to remove any finger marks once in place.

Taken from Ruth Clemens, The Busy Girl’s Guide to Cake Decorating available from rucraft.co.uk