Ingredients

• 3 1/3 cups (500g) plain flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 3 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 150g unsalted butter, softened
• 175g dark brown sugar
• 150g honey
• 1 egg

Icing

• 1 eggwhite
• 1 1/2 cups (240g) icing sugar, sifted
• Blue food colouring, to decorate
• Silver and blue cachous, to decorate

Method

• Step 1 Preheat oven to 180°C. Sift flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, spices and a pinch of salt together in a bowl.
• Step 2 Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add honey and egg, beat until combined. On low speed, gradually beat in sifted dry ingredients until mixture comes together. Divide dough in 1/2, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
• Step 3 Roll out dough halves between sheets of baking paper until 3-4mm-thick. Using 5cm and 8.5cm star-shaped biscuit cutters, cut stars from dough. Place same sized stars 3cm apart, on baking paper-lined oven trays. Bake for 5-7 minutes or until deep golden. Immediately, push the fine end of a chopstick through hot biscuits to make a hole, for threading ribbon through. Stand biscuits for 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool.
• Step 4 For icing, place 1/2 eggwhite in a bowl. Gradually stir in 1/2 icing sugar, 2 tablespoons at a time, until well combined. Spoon icing into a piping bag fitted with a 2mm piping tube and decorate biscuits as desired, pressing cachous into icing. Repeat with remaining eggwhite and icing sugar, adding a few drops of food colouring. Leave icing to set. Biscuits will keep in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.