Hurrah! Cupcake Belle has come up with a real treat for you! Yes, she’s made Magic Belles Gingerbread Bells which double as Christmas decorations! Here’s how to make them…
Make Magic Belles Gingerbread Bells
You need for the cookies:75g unsalted butter
100g dark brown soft sugar
75g golden syrup
1 egg
250g plain flour
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
1.5 tsp ground ginger
You need for the icing:
100g white sugarpaste (ready to roll fondant icing)
Food colourings in purple, pink, yellow, orange, green and blue
Bell-shaped cutters or templates
Mini star cutter
3tbsp apricot jam
- Chop butter that’s at room temperature into small chunks and cream it together with the brown sugar.
- Add the golden syrup and the egg, and mix well.
- Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ginger into the bowl and fold it into the butter mixture until it’s well combined and makes a firm dough.
- Wrap the dough in clingfilm and refrigerate for 30 minutes - overnight if possible. This will help your cookies to keep their shape.
- Line your baking sheet with parchment and preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4/180ºC.
- Sprinkle a light dusting of flour over the work surface and roll out your dough to around 4mm thick.
- Use bell-shaped cutters (or make your own templates) to cut out 6 small bells and one large bell.
- Before transferring them to a baking sheet, make a hole in the top of each cookie.
- Bake in the oven for 12 to 15 minutes or until light golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and, while still soft, carefully widen the holes again if necessary.
- Leave to firm up for a couple of minutes, then place them on a wire rack. Allow them to cool completely before decorating.
Now for the fun bit!
- Divide your white sugarpaste into seven sections, and make sure that one of them is double the size of the others.
- Colour each section by kneading food colouring into the sugarpaste. Paste colours work better than liquids for this job.
- Colour the largest section in pink and then one in green, one in orange, one in yellow, one in blue, and one in purple. Leave one section white. Pop each colour into a plastic bag and seal it tight to stop the sugarpaste from drying out.
- Roll out the white sugarpaste and cut out 7 stars using a mini star cutter. Put them to one side.
- Roll out the pink sugarpaste and cut out a small bell and a large bell.
- Cut out small bell shapes in each of the remaining sugarpaste colours and put leftover paste to one side (stored in plastic bags).
- Heat up the apricot jam and sieve out any lumps. Let it cool, then lightly brush it over the top of each cookie to form a sticky base.
- Place a small, colourful sugarpaste bell on top of each small cookie and the large pink sugarpaste bell on the large cookie. Gently pat around the edge of each one for a smooth finish.
- Dot a tiny bit of apricot jam on the top left-hand side of each cookie and pop the white star in place.
- To make the large pink cookie extra-special, roll out your remaining sugarpaste colours and cut a thin stripe from each one. Dab some jam on the pink sugarpaste and curve each stripe across it. For a neat finish, trim away any excess.
- To finish, thread and loop a pretty ribbon through the hole in each cookie and, if you can resist eating them, use them to decorate your tree!
We hope you love this very special Cupcake Belle creation as much as you loved her Rainbow Cake! Now we’re off to enjoy some gingerbread…
Lots of love and yumminess from Cupcake Belle and her friends in Bellevue. xxx
