One of the lovely ladies in my office is expecting a baby boy next month. Not wanting to miss any opportunity to get clucky, the rest of us organised a surprise baby shower for one of her last afternoons at work. We brought beautiful china teacups into the office, and had a proper ladies’ afternoon tea.

There was a sailboat theme – little sailboats on the invitations, a sailboat card, sailboat biscuits, and sailboat table decorations – one of my clever colleagues made little sailboats out of gorgeous patterned paper in nautical colours. We had a pretty coffee table set with fresh flowers, our afternoon tea delicacies, and beautifully wrapped gifts (I didn’t get any pictures of the set table, so  you’ll have to imagine it. Ready? - ok….. now!). We had dainty club sandwiches, chocolate macaroons, mini savoury muffins and cupcakes decorated in blue. I iced some gingerbread biscuits – baby rattles and sailboats!

I actually used the same recipe as for my Ninja-Bread Men. It’s the best recipe I’ve found for biscuits that really need to hold the cutter shape well. Some biscuits get a bit enthusiastic about rising up or spreading out, and the shape isn’t as clear as you’d like once they’re cooked. Here’s the recipe again. This is a halved mixture – it made about 20 biscuits.

Iced Gingerbread Biscuits

60g butter, softened
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup golden syrup
1 1/4 cups plain flour
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp baking soda

Preheat the oven to 190(c). Line two baking trays with baking paper.

Soften the butter if it’s been in the fridge (but don’t melt it), and cream it with the sugar until light and creamy. Add the golden syrup and sifted dry ingredients. Mix to a smooth dough. Wrap in cling film and chill for 10 minutes or so, until it’s firm enough to roll out.

Roll the dough to about 4mm thick, and cut out shapes. Place carefully on baking trays (I have one of those baby silicon fish slice type tools, was maybe $4 or $5 – and it is so good for moving dough biscuits without warping their shape). Bake for about 10 minutes, or  until golden brown, and slightly darker around the edges than in the middle. Leave them to cool on the trays.

I just iced them with plain white icing (icing sugar, lemon juice and hot water); you could use a royal icing with egg white if you wanted something a bit fancier.

The mother-to-be in our office was over the moon about the afternoon tea! We sipped tea, and talked about how different her life will be in another month… and clucked over the tiny hats, booties and clothes as she unwrapped them. Awwwwwwwwwwww.