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Easter Gingerbread House

Prep

3 HR

Bake

10-12 mins

Serves

1

Difficulty

Hard

About

Our simple biscuit recipe for gingerbread is a great way to get the kids involved with Easter baking!

made using

Icing Sugar

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Instructions
Ingredients
Reviews
Step 1

You need some tracing paper and cardboard to trace the gingerbread house patterns out using the templates, a 6.5cm (2¾”) oval cutter, 3 baking trays, a piping bag with a 1cm (½”) plain nozzle, 2 disposable piping bags, a 40x25.5cm (16”x10”) cake board, tray or flat plate and a pair of food safe disposable gloves.

Step 2

Make the dough. Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl and rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the Tate & Lyle Dark Muscovado Sugar and spices. Beat the eggs and Lyle’s Black Treacle together in a small bowl, then stir into the flour mixture with a wooden spoon to make a firm dough. Turn out on to a lightly floured surface and knead to bring together until smooth. Divide into two batches, wrap in cling film and chill for 30 minutes - no longer or it becomes too hard to easily roll.

Step 3

On a lightly floured surface thinly roll the dough out to about 5mm (¼”) thick and using the templates cut out two rectangles for the roof 21x11cm (8½”x4½”), two for the front and back walls 18x10cm (7”x4”) and two gable ends 14x10x10cm (5½”x 4”x4”) for the side walls. Using the oval cutter cut out a window from one of the gable ends, and cut out two ovals from the dough for the front door and the window. Re-roll any trimmings. Any leftover dough can be cut into Easter animal shapes, people and flowers.

Step 4

Preheat the oven to 200°C/Fan180°, 400°F, Gas 6.

Step 5

Carefully transfer the shapes to baking trays using a fish slice, slightly spaced apart, and bake in batches on the top and middle shelves of the oven for 10-12 minutes until slightly firm and the edges are darker brown than the middles. Leave to cool for 5 minutes until firmed up and then carefully slide onto a wire rack to cool.

Step 6

Make the icing by lightly beating the egg whites in a large bowl until frothy. Sift over the Tate & Lyle Icing Sugar and mix well untilsmooth, thick and spreadable.Cover the surface directly with a cling film and keep covered when not using.

Step 7

Spoon some of the icing into the piping bag and nozzle. To build the house, on the cake board, hold the front and one of the sides of the house together to form a corner and prop them up with small cans of food. Pipe icing on one of the outside edges and hold together briefly until the icing starts to set. Repeat with the other sides of the house to form a box, using more cans for propping. Leave to dry for about 30 minutes.

Step 8

On the underside of one of the roof pieces, pipe two lines of icing and affix to the house. Hold until the icing starts to set. Repeat with second roof piece.

Step 9

Leave the icing on the house to completely dry out, for a minimum of 4 hours but ideally overnight so it becomes firm enough to decorate.

Step 10

Pipe a line of icing the shape of the house onto the cake board and carefully place the house on top to stick it into position. Leave for about an hour to dry.

Step 11

Cover the door with white icing and leave to dry. Tint a little icing with green colour. Using a disposable piping bag, snip off the end, fill with the icing and pipe on a decorative edge. Stick on a few sprinkles to make a door wreath. Tint a little icing with blue colour and use to cover the window, then leave to dry. Using a disposable piping bag, snip off the end, fill with some white icing and pipe a window pane and a decorative edge. Leave to dry. Pipe blobs of icing on the backs of the door and window and fix in place on the house.

Step 12

Using some icing stick a few sugared flowers in the open window on the side of the house to create a window box.

Step 13

Using a small palette knife spread icing over the front of the house and stick on the white sweets. Repeat with the back and sides.

Step 14

Next, spread icing over the roof tops and decorate with the wafer flowers.

Step 15

Spread icing over the cake board to completely cover it.

Step 16

Create a path by using the white and orange sweets. Make a flowerbed and vegetable patch using the sugar flowers and carrots. Stick everything on with a dab of icing.

Step 17

Put the desiccated coconut in a small bowl, add a few drops of green colour and, using the disposable gloves, rub together to create ‘grass.’ Scatter around the path and flower and vegetable patches.

Step 18

Make a fence by putting a little icing on the bottom of the pretzels and stick them around the edge of the cake board.

Step 19

Place the chocolate bunnies around the house and in the vegetable patch and then the Easter house is ready.

TOP TIP

This gingerbread dough will make more than you need but it’s quite useful to have some extra for the children to play around with for cutting out all manner of decorative shapes for personalising the house.

The gingerbread house can be made 1 month ahead although it’s best only for display, rather than eating, as the gingerbread will dry out.

We usually make this over a two-day period, baking and assembling the house one day, allowing a few hours for the icing to harden, and then decorate it the following day.

Ingredients – 7 items

Serving

1

For the gingerbread dough

Flour

Self raising flour

Plus extra for rolling

825 g
Butter

Butter

Unsalted

250 g
Fairtrade Dark Muscovado

Tate & Lyle Dark Muscovado Sugar

250 g
Ginger

Ginger

Ground

4 tsp
Cinnamon

Cinnamon

Ground

2 tsp
Eggs

Large eggs

Beaten

2

Tate & Lyle’s Black treacle

250 g

For the icing

Egg whites

5
Fairtrade Cane Icing Sugar

Fairtrade Tate & Lyle Icing Sugar

Plus extra for sifting

1 kg

For the decoration

Food-colouring-gel

Food colouring gel

Blue & green

Flowers-Edible

Decorative sugar flowers

Sweets

Red sweets

Flaked coconut

Desiccated coconut

White chocolate chips

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Sweet and citrusy, we recently discovered the joy of a Lemon Drizzle Scone! 

There's no need for jam and cream with these, as the delicious glaze keeps things light and fresh - perfect for a fluffy scone.

However, if you want to add lemon curd... we won't judge!: 

Ingredients

40g Tate & Lyle Golden Caster Sugar
375g Self Raising Flour
1 tsp. Baking Powder
75g Unsalted Butter
Zest of 2 lemons
1 egg
170ml milk of choice

Glaze

5 tbsp Tate & Lyle Icing Sugar
2/3  tsp lemon Juice.
Zest of 1 lemon.

Method

1. Pre- heat oven to 220c, 200c Fan Gas Mark 7. Place the flour, baking powder, Tate & Lyle Golden Caster Sugar and softened butter in a large bowl rubbing the butter in to form fine breadcrumbs.
2. Stir in the lemon zest, place the egg and milk in a measuring jug, and beat together. Add to the dry mix, keeping back a small amount to glaze the scones before baking. Mix together to form soft dough.
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5. Bake for approximately 15 minutes or until a lovely golden brown colour.
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Believe it or not, custard slices actually hail from Australia! 

A delicious vanilla custard block hidden between two crisp puff pastry slices (dusted with plenty of Tate & Lyle Icing Sugar!) 

If you've not made one before, we suggest you rectify it ASAP!:

Ingredients

Pastry

3 Tbsp. Tate & Lyle Icing Sugar for dusting
500g Block Puff pastry
60g Flaked Almonds

Custard Filling.

140g Tate & Lyle Pure Cane Caster Sugar.
750ml Whole Milk
250ml Double cream
1/2 Vanilla pod Halved lengthways seeds removed
90g Corn flour
25g Custard Powder
3 medium Egg Yolks
1 Gelatine Leaf

Method.

Heat the oven to 200c/180fan/Gas6.

Divide the pastry into two and roll out half on baking parchment to 25x 25cm. Scatter over half of the almonds pressing them gently into the pastry and then sprinkle with Tate & Lyle Icing Sugar. Cover with another layer of baking parchment and another baking tray and on this place a weighted object like a square casserole dish filled with baking beans, to keep the pastry flat. 

Bake for 30/35 minutes until a crispy golden brown.

Remove from the oven take off the baking weights remove the parchment and allow to cool. Repeat the process with the other half of the pastry. Allow both to cool completely.

Put the gelatine in a bowl of cold water to soften.

Mix the corn flour with the custard powder and approx. 6 tbsps. of the milk, add to the pan with the rest of the milk, the vanilla pod and seeds, Tate & Lyle Pure Cane Caster Sugar, cream, whisk over a low heat to ensure no lumps appear, after a couple of minutes whisk in the egg yolks and keep heating until the mix is thick and smooth. Remove the vanilla pod and  gelatine form the water and whisk into the custard and heat for a further minute.

Line the base and sides of a 20cm square cake tin with baking parchment. Trim one square of pastry to fit in the tin almond side down.

Spread over the custard evenly. Trim the other square into eight rectangles and sit them on the custard almond side up. Gently press down onto the custard. And chill overnight.

Slice & Dust with icing sugar and serve with fresh raspberries. Enjoy!
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Self-confessed tea fanatic like @moneymakeoverwithgem live for a stress-free few minutes with a cuppa for company.

And a Tate & Lyle Sweetener is one of the best ways to go about... The sugar alternative that's lighter in calories as well as on your pursestrings! 

Here's what she had to say: 

"Tea for me is my me time. When I wake up in the morning, or take a break from work it is my time to relax and enjoy my tea (I am a tea addict 😂).

I have tried sweeteners before in the past but didn’t stick with it.

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Can anyone guess what this brand-new scone recipe is? 

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This fruity and subtly spiced recipe is deliciously posh nosh that goes down beautifully with a cup of tea or coffee. (Especially if there's some Tate & Lyle Sweetener in your brew!)

Follow the recipe here: 

INGREDIENTS:

200g Tate & Lyle Caster Sugar
175g Butter
3 Large Eggs
1 Large Pear (cored and finely diced)
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
175g Self Raising Flour
2 tsp Cinnamon

For the Lemon Frosting
150g Tate & Lyle Icing Sugar
1 Lemon (zested and juiced)

METHOD:

Cream the butter with the sugar, then beat in the eggs one at a time, adding a small amount of flour after each addition. Then add your vanilla extract, diced pear and the remaining flour and cinnamon. Mix well! 
Grease your savarin or bundt cake tin well and spoon in the mixture.
Bake at 180ºC/160ºC Fan/Gas 4 for 25-30 minutes.
Check the cake is fully baked by inserting a skewer if it comes out clean it is cooked, if gooey allow a further 5 minutes.
Mix the icing ingredients together. When the cake has cooled remove from the tin and drizzle over the icing.
Sorry, we couldn't wait...

Mille-Feuille might be the prettiest dessert going, but just like a sunset, their beauty is gone before you know it!

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Link in bio for the recipe.
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300 servings in one easily storable dispenser, it's an aspartame-free, low-calorie treat. 

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