Favours take the biscuit . .

MUSIC may be the food of love, but on that most important of days you will want to give guests something just as sweet but perhaps a little more substantial to thank them for making that special day just that.

The tradition of giving wedding favours as a gesture of appreciation is an old one.

First common amongst European aristocracy in the Middle ages, favours, known as bombonieres, were little ornate boxes containing five sugared almonds which symbolised wealth, health, happiness, fertility, and a long life. Today, sugary treats are still the traditional way to thank your wedding guests.

However there are many ways to make sure that the party favours your guests will take home are a cut above the rest by adding that most important ingredient of all – the personal touch.

For some marzipan is a bad word. This common and misunderstood staple of wedding celebrations everywhere is believed to have originated in the Middle East and came to Europe during the Middle Ages.

The mixture of sweet sugar and bitter almonds symbolised the sweetness and bitterness of marriage. Those who have been scarred by childhood memories, know it as the sticky stuff they scrape off wedding cake before eating it, but don't let that put you off. If you want to truly personalise your wedding favours, it's a bad mistake to discount good old marzipan.

"What we are trying to do is get an alternative to sugared almonds." said Ross Sneddon, the pastry chef for the Balmoral Hotel.

"A lot of people say that they hate marzipan but it tastes totally different when you make it from scratch. It tastes like almond nuts, and doesn't have that horrible chemical taste."

"Flowers are closely related to weddings so we use coloured marzipan, pink and white, to make edible flowers."

"It's nice and simple for the bride and the groom to do. There's so much planning to do in weddings that they won't want to be worrying about the favours. I can imagine the bride and her friends, sitting around together at night and making them."

In Scotland cakes were broken over the brides head for luck. However, hopefully, most wedding guests would rather take their cakes home and eat them, so biscuits as party favours are another way to be a little bit different.

Rob Ellis of House of Sugar says: "This is a great take on the famous 'Jammy Dodger' biscuit, with a matrimonial twist. These biscuits can be made in any shape and make fantastic wedding favours when packaged in cellophane bags or boxes.

"Brides and grooms can even have ribbon printed with their wedding date and names on – this looks great when used to tie the tops of the bags.

"As an alternative to the jammy dodger style biscuit, simply omit the cutting out of the smaller hearts, leave the biscuit intact and pipe names of your guests on each individual biscuit with Royal icing.

"Leave for 24 hours for the icing to harden before putting into bags. Your guests will remember the delicious and romantic keepsakes you gave them on your wedding day forever."

Recipes

Shortbread hearts
Ingredients:
9oz plain flour
3oz caster sugar
6oz unsalted butter

Filling Ingredients:
3oz softened butter
9oz icing sugar, sifted
1 tbsp milk
Few drops vanilla extract
2 tbsp seedless raspberry jam
Icing sugar to dust

Method:
Mix flour and sugar. Rub in butter and knead with warm hands until you have a smooth dough. Roll out the dough on a floured surface to a 3mm thickness.

Using a heart cutter cut as many hearts from the dough as you can, before re-rolling it and cutting more. Repeat until dough is gone and use a smaller heart cutter to remove centres from half the hearts.

Place them in a pre-heated oven and bake at 160C (Gas mark 3 or 4) for 30 minutes. When done, the shortbread should just start to brown and look a little risen and spongy.

Leave them to cool on the tray for five minutes, before gently lifting with a knife and placing them on a cooling rack.

Once the biscuits have cooled, mix the butter cream together adding more milk if you need it.

Once all the icing sugar is incorporated, beat the mixture vigorously until it goes pale in colour. Using a smooth edged knife spread the butter cream around the top half of the hearts and the jam on the bottom. Sandwich together and dust with icing sugar.

Marzipan roses
Ingredients:
450g ground almonds
910g sugar
3-4 egg yolks
110g liquid glucose
Few drops of almond essence
500ml water

Method:
Place water, sugar and liquid glucose in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Keep the sides of the saucepan free from sugar re-crystallisation. When the sugar reaches a temperature of 240-245F/115 - 118c (soft ball stage) remove from the heat and stir in the ground almonds. Care must be taken not to boil over the sugar or the marzipan will be of too hard a consistency.

Add essences and egg yolks and mix thoroughly.

On a smooth surface knead to a smooth consistency. Roll out to a thickness of 1mm using icing sugar to prevent it from sticking.

Cut into a small triangle and roll to form the 'rosebud'. Continue to cut out further triangles, attaching each individually around the bud to build up the full flower.

Doing this properly does require practice and patience, so don't worry if you only master it after a few botched attempts. Place them in small gift boxes, available from most stationary shops, supermarkets and kitchen departments.