For all the folks looking for a ‘tried and tested’ recipe, we have to admit, this one is a guaranteed crowd pleaser!

Stuck for decorating ideas, why not check out our Pinterest board for some inspiration?

Ingredients:

For the lemon sponge

265g unsalted butter

265g caster sugar

5 eggs

280g plain flour

12g baking powder

32ml lemon juice

20g lemon zest

For the syrup

113ml lemon juice

56g caster sugar

For the buttercream icing

125g softened butter

250g icing sugar

Zest of 2 lemons

Raspberry jam

*Preheat your oven to 165°C (fan), gas mark 3

*Cream together the butter, sugar, baking powder and zest until it looks light and fluffy and the sugar has mostly dissolved.

*Slowly add the eggs, frequently scraping down the sides of the bowl to ensure a smooth mixture. You can add a handful of flour if the mixture splits.

*Once all the eggs are combined, fold in the flour then add the lemon juice.

*Scrape down the sides of the bowl and give it one final mix to ensure it is evenly blended.

*Pour the mixture into two 6 inch buttered and lined tins – there should be around 550g of mixture in each.

*Bake in the middle of the oven for 45-55 mins or until golden brown on top.

*To make the syrup dissolve the sugar in the lemon juice and bring to the boil.

*As soon as the cake is cooked prick it all over with a skewer and pour on the syrup evenly.

*For the buttercream, cream the butter with the icing sugar and lemon zest until light and fluffy.

*Put a layer of raspberry jam on top of the bottom cake and spread some buttercream over the top. Place the second cake on top and cover with the remaining buttercream.

*We’ve added some hand-iced lemon slice biscuits and butter cream swirls…but it looks just as good as it is!

Pssst… not enough time to bake? We now sell our cakes by the slice at our Biscuiteers Boutique and Icing Café, 194 Kensington Park Road, Notting Hill, W11 2ES.

We also shot a film all about our beautiful boutique which we are debuting here, just for you!

Ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes at a Biscuiteers birthday party or one of our Icing classes? Learn all about it here!

We had a wonderful day shooting the films and we really hope you enjoy watching them

For more inspiration on our perfect Easter weekend, check out our Pinterest board for some ideas

You will need -

275g plain flour

100g self-raising flour

75g good quality cocoa powder

125g granulated sugar

125g salted butter, diced

125g golden syrup

1 large egg, lightly beaten

And then just follow these simple steps….

* Preheat the oven to 170c/350f/gas mark 4 before you begin.

* Sift the flours and cocoa together into a mixing bowl, add the sugar and mix well.

* Add the butter. Using just the tips of your fingers, rub together the ingredients until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

* When all the butter is evenly mixed in, make a well in the centre and add the syrup and the egg.

* Mix well, drawing in any of the flour left at the sides of the bowl and stop as soon as a ball has formed.

* Place the dough onto your clean worktop. Divide into two and squash the dough into two even-sized flat discs. Cover and chill until ready to use, or roll out immediately.

* Place the dough on a sheet of parchment and begin by gently squashing the dough down with a rolling pin or your hands. Cover with a second sheet of parchment and then use the rolling pin to roll out properly.

* The top sheet of paper may crinkle from time to time, just peel it off and smooth it down gently before starting to roll again.

* Gently roll the dough until it is 5mm thick all over, then transfer the whole sheet of rolled dough still sandwiched between its sheets of parchment to a baking tray and place in the fridge to chill for at least 20 – 30 minutes before cutting.

* Easter egg shaped cutters are widely available online, or you can choose to make your own. To do this, identify the egg size you want to trace and lay a sheet of parchment on top, carefully tracing around.  Carefully cut the template out with scissors. You can find some of our favourite templates in the Biscuiteers Book of Iced Biscuits.

* Assemble your collection of cutters or templates and start to cut. To use the dough efficiently cut the biscuits out as close together as possible. Lift each biscuit onto the parchment covered baking tray and make sure they are not too close together as the dough will spread a little on baking. Any trimmings can be re-rolled a couple of times.

* If you are planning to hang your biscuit eggs on your Easter tree, now is the time to pierce the holes. The best way to do this is with a cocktail stick.

* Evenly space the trays in the oven and cook for 14-18 minutes, depending on your oven.

* When the biscuits are evenly cooked and just beginning to darken slightly, remove the trays from the oven and transfer the whole sheet of parchment to a cooling rack. Do this carefully as the biscuits will be quite fragile and hot!

* Cool totally before starting to ice

Now the fun begins! Follow these simple steps to ice your eggs -

1.  To start, cut your piping bag straight across to achieve a clean icing line.

2. Always use a clean piping bag, so that your icing colours stay lovely.

3. We use two basic types of royal icing at Biscuiteers – a thick, smooth paste for piping details and edging, and a runnier glossy mixture for flooding larger areas.

4. Practice your icing techniques on a parchment sheet before starting on your biscuits.

5. Using the piping icing ( it should be smooth and thick, a bit like the texture of toothpaste) and ice around the egg edges to create a ‘wall’ for the runny icing.

6. Once the edges are dry (about 10 minutes in room temperautre) use a runny royal icing to flood the biscuit.

7. When filling areas with runny icing, use a sharp cocktail stick to burst any bubbles. This will help achieve a smooth and luxurious finish. Pop the biscuits in your oven for 45 minutes on the lowest temperature to dry the runny icing.

8. Our Easter Eggs are iced in Faberge inspired swirls, stripes and spots which are quite easy to achieve. Once the flood icing is completely dry, use the thick line icing to carefully add the detail on top.

9. If you want the detail to sink into the flood icing, much like our polka dot effect, add this whilst the flood icing is still wet.

10. Stock up on lots of baubles and sugar glitter to finish off your Easter eggs with some pizazz! Do remember though that sugar glitter will stick better to super wet icing (it dries pretty fast!)

11. Hanging the eggs with ribbon makes for a lovely Easter decoration idea. If you are planning to do this, make the hole with a cocktail stick before you bake the biscuits.

If you’d like to learn all the Biscuiteer tips and tricks, join us at our Biscuit Boutique & Icing Cafe for an Icing workshop. Our 2 hour Easter classes are running from the 27th March, for more information and to book your place follow this link

The inspiration for this maginifcent project lies with her new collection, named ‘Once Upon a Time’. Charlotte drew upon the world of fairy tales in her design, and wanted to bring this vision to life in all its glory when presenting to the fashion world. Que a call from Charlotte’s fantastic creative agency, Fiona Leahy to our London bakery!

175 gingerbread bricks and 2 giant buckets of icing we’re made in the Biscuiteers bakery before being shipped off to Paris, along with one of our expert icers who hand-iced all the finishing details on site in Paris. We also baked and hand iced 300 Charlotte Olympia inspired jolly gingers which will be served to their guests through Paris Fashion Week.

Take a peek at the gingerbread house being built, transformed and in action!

 The Biscuiteers team ice the hand cut gingerbread bricks onto the house structure

The front of the house being unwrapped after its journey to Paris!

The gorgeous detail was iced onto the house on site in Paris

The beautiful setting for the gingerbread house, being prepped for opening!

The finished house!

It’s whipped up a social media storm, with Vogue UK posting pictures of it and the fashion hero, Anna Dello Russo posting a picture of herself infront of it!

With some rather gorgeous pom poms from The Pom Pom Factory and specially made (and super sized!) chocolate spotty heart biscuits, we created a beautiful hanging display for our window.

What’s more, if you pop into the boutique between 12-4pm on Saturday 9th or Sunday 10th February, our icers will be on hand to personalise your heart biscuits! So think of something lovely to say, and say it in icing!

At our School of Icing, students work closely with expert icers in groups no larger than 10. We share all of our top-secret Biscuiteer tips, and guide you through the techniques from making different types of icing, mixing-up colours, right to the biscuit icing itself. You’ll ice an entire tin full of biscuits under the watchful eye of our expert icers (whilst sipping on a cup of tea or two!).

Here we have Lorena passing on some invaluable tips on how to ice our Vintage Birthday collection !

Not only will you leave full of inspiration and icing genius.. you also get a ‘money-cant-buy’ goody bag which includes your hand iced biscuit tin and a Biscuiteers Certificate of Icing Brilliance!!

We’ve had lots of lovely feedback on the classes -

“ I came to the icing class on Sunday with my daughter Emily and we had the most amazing time and loved the 2 hours – it went by so quickly. Brilliant – what a great way to spend a Sunday morning.” Kate Clark Kennedy

“ Just want to say a big thank you for a great event yesterday. So good to actually try out the techniques. Met a lovely bunch of people and learnt a great new skill.” Cate Ledda

Take a peek here for all our upcoming classes and other events in the Biscuit Boutique.

Take a peek at their holiday snaps below, and the full album on our facebook page! They are a very well travelled bunch.

If you see a Jolly Ginger out and about, be sure to take a snap for us!

To make 24 Orange and Cinnamon biscuits, you’ll need –

350g plain flour

100g self-raising flour

125g granulated sugar

125g salted butter, diced

125g golden syrup

1 large egg, lightly beaten

Grated zest of 2 oranges

½ tablespoon of cinnamon

Then follow these steps -

*  Preheat the oven to 170c/350f/gas mark 4 before you begin making your biscuits.

* Sift the flours together into a mixing bowl; add the sugar, cinnamon and orange zest. Mix well.

* Add the butter. Using just the tips of your fingers, rub together the ingredients until the mixture resembles  fine breadcrumbs.

* When all the butter is evenly mixed in, make a well in the centre and add the syrup and the egg.

* Mix well, drawing in any of the flour left at the sides of the bowl and stop as soon as a ball has formed.

* Place the dough onto your clean worktop. Divide into two and squash the dough into two even-sized flat discs. Cover and chill until ready to use, or roll out immediately.

* Place the dough on a sheet of parchment and begin by gently squashing the dough down with a rolling pin or your hands. Cover with a second sheet of parchment and then use the rolling pin to roll out properly.

* The top sheet of paper may crinkle from time to time, just peel it off and smooth it down gently before starting to roll again.

* Gently roll the dough until it is 5mm thick all over, then transfer the whole sheet of rolled dough still sandwiched between its sheets of parchment to a baking tray and place in the fridge to chill forat least 20 – 30 minutes before cutting.

* Christmas themed cutters are widely available online, or you can choose to make your own. To do this, identify the shape you want to trace and lay a sheet of parchment on top, carefully tracing around the shape.  Remember that you can ice on much more detail than needs to be reflected in the shape of the biscuit. Carefully cut the templates out with scissors.

* To use the dough efficiently cut the biscuits out as close together as possible. Lift each biscuit onto the parchment covered baking tray and make sure they are not too close together as the dough will spread a little on baking. Any trimmings can be re-rolled a couple of times.

* If you’re planning to hang the biscuits on your tree, remember to make holes in the biscuits! This is best done with a cocktail stick.

* Evenly space the trays in the oven and cook for 14-18 minutes, depending on your oven.

* When the biscuits are evenly cooked and just beginning to turn a golden colour remove the trays from the oven and transfer the whole sheet of parchment to a cooling rack. Do this carefully as they will be quite fragile and hot!

* Cool totally before starting to ice.

Now the icing can begin!

Top tips to keep in mind before you start -

1. Cut your piping bag straight across to achieve a clean icing line.

2. Always use a clean piping bag, so that your icing colours stay lovely.

3. We use two basic types of royal icing at Biscuiteers – a thick, smooth paste for piping details and edging (line) and a runnier glossy mixture for flooding larger areas (flood).

4. Practice your icing techniques on a parchment sheet before starting on your biscuits.

5. When filling areas with runny icing, use a sharp cocktail stick to burst any bubbles. This will help achieve a smooth and luxurious finish.

6. We love vibrant coloured stripes and spots, which are quite easy to achieve. Once the flood icing is completely dry, use the thick line icing to carefully add the detail on top.

7. If you want the detail to sink into the flood icing, much like our polka dot hearts, add this whilst the flood icing is still wet.

8. Stock up on lots of baubles and sugar glitter to finish off your biscuits with some pizazz! Do remember though that sugar glitter will stick better to super wet icing (it dries pretty fast!)

Trellis bauble – Outline the bauble in parma violet line icing, add pink tine tassel and fuchia detail around the ribbon hole. When dry, flood the circle with res and wait for a minute to let it set. Pipe the criss-cross pattern in parma violet line. Add the dots of lime green line icing and the little golden baubles to decorate.

Teardrop bauble –  This is all iced in line icing. Seperating each band with a green stripe, ice all the way down in coloured bands in a zig-zag pattern. Drop gold and silver balls onto the decoration whilst the icing is still wet.

Candy cane –  Pipe around the outline and the hole in pink line icing and allow to completely dry. Floord with white runny icing, remove any air bubbles with a cocktail stick and leave to set. Ice the candy striped in alternate colours in line.

For more inspiration check out our Christmas Bauble ranges here! Or even better, you can attend one of our Icing School Workshops and learn all the tricks of the trade.

From everyone at Biscuiteers, we wish you a very merry Christmas.

Our showstopping gingerbread Selfridges forms part of the ‘Not your Usual Christmas’ window campaign curated by Bruce Weber, featuring a miniature pony, a Fashionista’s Christmas eve sleepover and Father Christmas riding a shoe shaped sleigh!

‘Not your Usual Gingerbread house’ took our Biscuiteers team 4 days to construct and ice, and measures a huge 350 x 350 x 930mm. Now that’s one big biscuit!

The window also features over 150 of our iced biscuit tree decorations!

If you’re visiting Selfridges this Christmas season, we’d love to hear what you think!

For more gingerbread constructions check out the Jolly Ginger Village newly built in our Notting Hill Biscuit Boutique.

Along with our lovely online range, the boutique has a dedicated biscuit-icing area (which we think is a first?!!) where we’ll be holding a drop-in icing cafe and seasonal icing workshops. Our Christmas themed workshops are booking up fast, so if you fancy learning how to be a Biscuiteer, get in touch soon!

The boutique is also available to hire for private icing parties and Children’s birthday celebrations.

We hope to welcome you in to the boutique soon!