Snowman Empires Snowman Empires offer a festive twist on this beloved Scottish biscuit. Ideal for Christmas baking with kids, they pair buttery shortbread with a sweet jam filling, topped with fondant to make a wee snowman. The biggest challenge will be trying not to eat all the jelly tots before you finish decorating! Ingredients For the biscuit 250g butter, softened 100g caster sugar 1 egg ½ tsp vanilla bean paste 450g plain flour For the decorations 75g raspberry jam 250g white fondant icing 100g red fondant icing 30g black fondant icing White writing icing Sprinkles Packet of Jelly Tots Method - Makes 12-14 Cream together your butter and sugar, then mix in the egg and vanilla. Sift in the flour in batches and mix well until combined. Lightly flour a work surface and roll out the dough to a 5mm thickness. Use a round cutter on the biscuits. Place on a baking tray, leaving a bit of space between biscuits to spread. Pop in the fridge for at least 1 hour to firm up. Preheat the oven to 180°c/160°c fan and bake for 10 minutes, they should still light in colour. Leave to cool completely on a wire rack. Roll out white fondant icing. Using a cutter, shape circles to match the biscuits. Lightly brush the reverse side of each circle with lukewarm water and stick them to half of the biscuits. With the rolled red icing. Cut circles from this and then slice these circles in half. Attach these to the top half of the white-iced biscuits using a touch of water to create the hats. Dampen the areas of the hats where you wish to apply sprinkles for added decoration. Pipe white writing icing to add details to the hats. Form small balls from black icing for the eyes and a smile, positioning these on the faces along with a jelly tot for the nose. Spread one tablespoon of jam on each of the remaining biscuits. Gently press the decorated biscuits onto these jam-covered biscuits. Allow them to set before serving. Full recipe in my cookbook Hebridean Baker, The Scottish Cookbook #HebrideanBaker #Recipe #Scotland #AD