Here’s a taste of nostalgia – crunchy, buttery and milky cookies topped with royal icing.
Always a child’s favourite treat!
Iced gem biscuits are crunchy mini biscuits, topped with a dollop of sweet royal icing with pretty colors!
I remember my childhood being filled with old school snacks like these cute little biscuits. How would you choose to eat this? Bite the chunk of icing off first? Or just munch happily on the entire biscuit? :p
若想阅读中文版本,请在网页的右边 “Google Translate” 点击选择 中文简体 (Chinese Simplified)或 繁体 (Chinese Traditional) 翻译。可能食谱读起来会怪怪的,所以如果有疑问都可以问哦!
How Do These Iced Gem Biscuits Taste Like?
This biscuit base is a little different than the commercial ones. You will find it full of buttery and milky scent, which we really like! It feels more towards a crunchy cookie than a cream cracker type of biscuit.
The royal icing was from Dreamer’s Loft recipe, and it’s really yummy! The consistency is very easy to achieve even for first timers like me.
Is It Easy To Make These Iced Gem Biscuits?
This recipe uses the simple creaming method. You will just need to beat the butter, which is softened at room temperature, together with the icing sugar. Beat until the mixture turns out pale and creamy.
Do not let the butter soften too much. The butter is ready when you press a finger against the butter, and it leaves an indentation easily, with the butter still feeling cool to touch.
If your finger dents the butter too easily, and it feels like the butter is melting, then that’s too soft. You may place the butter back to the fridge for about 5 mins or so, and check again.
You will need a little patience to roll these little biscuits one by one! You can make the indentation marks one by one like mine, or just leave them round with no pattern around the biscuits.
>> OTHER YUMMY COOKIE RECIPES:
How To Make The Icing?
To make the royal icing, simply whisk together the meringue powder and icing sugar. Add in warm water and beat the mixture to peaks, like meringue. You will find it easier to make the icing with handheld electric mixer at high speed, compared to using hand and whisk.
For the coloring, if you do not want to use food coloring, you can use freeze-dried fruit or veggie powder like me.
The biscuits were so cute and tasty that I made 2 batches over Saturday and Sunday 🙂 My daughter was so pleased to do the piping of icing together with me!
How To Store The Cookies?
After icing the cookies, you will have to let them dry completely by airing dry for a couple of hours.
Alternatively, you can also place the iced cookies into the oven, at 70C for about 10-15 mins.
Once dried completely, you can store these cookies in airtight container.

Iced Gem Biscuits 花占饼干
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 46 Biscuits 1x
Description
A taste of nostalgia – simple buttery and milky cookie, topped with royal icing. Always a child’s favourite treat!
Ingredients
Biscuit Base
- 50 g unsalted butter (softened)
- 20 g icing sugar
- 20 g beaten egg
- 110 g cake or plain flour
- 10 g full cream milk powder (for baking use)
- Pinch of salt
Royal Icing Topping
- 150 g icing sugar
- 1 tbsp meringue powder
- 2 tbsp warm water
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
- Gel food coloring or natural fruit/veg powder
Instructions
Biscuit Base
- In a medium bowl, add in softened butter and icing sugar. Whisk till well incorporated and lighter in color.
- Add in beaten egg in 2 batches. Mix well after each addition.
- Sift flour into the butter mixture. Add in milk powder. Using a spatula, and in a cutting motion, fold the dry and wet ingredients into dough.
- Divide the dough into smaller pcs, weighing about 3g each. Roll the small pcs of dough into balls, flatten the top slightly. Make indentation marks around the dough using a toothpick.
- Place all dough onto lined baking tray. Preheat oven to 170C. Bake on the middle rack for 10-15 minutes. The dough should be light golden in color.
- Cool completely on wire rack before storing or icing.
Royal Icing Topping
- Add meringue powder and icing sugar into mixing bowl.
- Add in warm water and mix on medium speed.
- You will see the mixture turning opaque. Continue mixing until it turns white and reaches stiff peak. (When you lift the whisk, the meringue mixture should hold up well, not too droopy)
- Add in vanilla extract and mix well.
- Divide icing and add in coloring or natural fruit/veg powder as desired, or simply ice in white.
- Place icing into piping bags, fitted with piping nozzle. I am using 1M Wilton tip.
- Pipe and ice as desired. Leave to dry in room temp for a couple of hours, or overnight.
- Store biscuits in airtight container once dried.
Notes
Royal icing recipe adapted from Dreamer’s Loft. You may have extra royal icing left.
I have divided the icing into 4 portions to make pink/yellow/green/white. I used 3/4 tsp each of strawberry powder, pumpkin powder, spinach powder, from Tomizawa Singapore.
- Category: Cookie, Snack

Spot the vegetable powder among the stuff I bought from Tomizawa Singapore!

Happy girl!
I am using this Wilton meringue powder, which you can buy from Phoon Huat or any local baking supplies store. Sometimes this meringue powder can be difficult to find locally, so you can also get them from Amazon below:
Have fun!
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