STAR SHAPED FOODS RECIPES

Steps:

• Lift the cake onto the cake board or a plate and cover with jam, marzipan and – brushing with water around the sides of the cake only – ready-to-roll icing. Trim at the base.
• Press star cutters gently into the icing, stopping when you get to the marzipan. Pull the star shapes out with the cutter, or ease it out with the tip of a knife. Stamp out a couple of small stars from re-rolled trimmings of icing (from icing the cake) and sit them inside the large star-shaped spaces.
• Sprinkle the gold balls into the gaps and tie the ribbon around the cake. Can be decorated up to a week ahead.

Steps:

• Unroll the pastry and sprinkle most of the cheese over one half of the sheet. Fold the pastry in half to cover the cheese and seal it in.
• Dust your rolling pin and work surface with a little flour and put your pastry sheet on it. Roll it out until doubled in size.
• Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6 and line two baking sheets with baking parchment.
• Using cookie cutters, cut the pastry into shapes and put them on the prepared baking sheets. (Put the cutters on the dough close together so that less pastry is wasted. You can fold the trimmings back on themselves and re-roll to cut out more shapes.)
• Brush the shapes with milk and add a pinch of cheese and a sprinkling of your chosen topping, if using.
• Bake in the oven for 10-12 mins or until risen and golden, then transfer to a serving plate. Will keep in an airtight container for 3 days.