The recipe is the same as my original iced gems recipe so I will not replicate it here. Blue pea flower extract was used to cut down on the amount of artificial blue colouring needed. I soaked about 1 tbs of dried flowers in 2 tbs of water for 20 minutes before straining and squeezing out the water from the flowers.
What's new about this is the three-layered icing. Traditional gems only have one dollop. To make the Christmas tree shaped icing, simply pipe using the same star tip but making sure that the bottom layer is a pretty flat star. Do this by holding the tip about 2mm away from biscuit surface and squeeze the piping bag until the ruffles spread to the border of the biscuit. Release pressure and quickly lift up the tip.
Repeat for second layer but this time release pressure when the ruffles are about 2mm away from the edge of the ruffles on the bottom layer. Press the tip down a little as you pipe so that the icing sticks to the bottom layer of icing when you lift the tip off.
Pipe the top layer by piping a small dollop of icing the same way as regular gems. Remember to press the tip down a little to let the icing stick to second layer. It doesn't matter whether the layer of icing below is still wet or already dry.
To minimise wastage of icing sugar, begin with the darkest blue shade of icing. Any leftover icing from that round can be added on to the lighter shades of blue. In fact I only added blue colouring for the darkest shade. The rest were made from added white icing.
Easy peasy but oh-so-pretty!
All packed! I could only fit 38 gems instead of 40 plus gems into the regular container due to the taller icing.
Blessed birthday Caleb!
With lots of love,
Auntie Phay Shing
Hi Auntie Phay Shing,
ReplyDeleteOh yes, this is such cute and pretty gems!
Love it to bits!
mui
Thanks Mui Mui :)
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