This recipe works well for all occasions , it's an everyday biscuit served plain or it can be decorated for high days and holidays such as Valentine's Day . It is a rich buttery biscuit that has a hint of lemon flavour and the addition of caster sugar gives it a crisp snap.

Preparation
You will need 2-3 baking sheets and a 5 cm heart cutter
Set the oven at 160C fan
Line baking sheets with silicon sheets or grease lightly with oil

Ingredients

• 225g SR flour ( plus a little for rolling out)
• 114g caster sugar
• A pinch of cinnamon
• 114g un salted butter
• 1 egg ( beaten)
• Zest and juice of half a lemon

For the icing

• 2 egg whites (add gradually stopping when the consistency is sufficient to ice and stay in place)
• 460g icing sugar
• Pink gel colour

Method
Place the flour, cinnamon and sugar in a bowl and mix well
Rub in the butter until it resembles fine breadcrumbs
Add the zest and juices of half lemon and the beaten egg
Mix to a stiff paste and turn out onto a lightly floured board
Knead gently until the dough is smooth
Roll out thinly  (I have two rulers that I roll the dough between, when the dough is the same thickness as the rulers it's the correct thickness ). 25mg
Cut out the hearts and place them 3 cm apart on the tray
Place on the greased or lined baking sheets and bake for approximately 15 minutes
They should be slightly golden around the edges and firm to touch
Place on a wire rack to cool

To make the royal icing
In a bowl beat the egg whites until frothy
Sift the icing sugar into the bowl and stir the mixture until the correct consistency is reached
Using a cocktail stick add a little of the pink colouring until the right colour is reached.
Using half of the icing fill an icing bag that has been fitted with a small round nozzle (tip)
Add a little more pink gel colour to turn the remainder of the icing a darker shade of pink and place in an icing bag with a small round  nozzle
Pipe the outline of a heart onto the biscuit and then continue to follow the contour of the heart to infill ,( this is called " flood icing ") to the centre of the heart.

Using a cocktail stick spread the icing to completely fill the heart, shake the biscuit on the work top ( counter ) to ensure the icing is smooth
Then using the darker pink icing bag pipe straight horizontal line across the iced biscuit approximately half a centimetre apart.
With a cocktail stick draw a line up and then the next line down until you have reached the other side of the iced heart , this is called " feathering" .
See my Instagram for the video clips to help you do this.
Leave the biscuits to set , this will take at least 4 hours and overnight would be better before packing away in an airtight tin.

I'm making valentines biscuits , keep watching to see how they are done

A video posted by Val Stones (@valcake.walks) on Feb 12, 2017 at 10:13am PST

​Variation- to make Easter biscuit
In Somerset Cassia oil is added to the biscuit mixture , just 4-5 drops as it has a strong flavour it gives a distinct "Easter flavour "
Also add 60g currants.
Either use a round cutter or an oval cutter to cut the biscuits and omit the icing.
If you wish make the lemon biscuits and use an oval, egg shaped cutter, chick or lamb shaped cutter and decorate appropriately.