Shortbread:

• 250g flour
• 150g soft butter
• 60g caster sugar

Raspberry Insert:

• a handful of raspberries

Marshmallow:

• 100ml lemon juice
• 250g caster sugar
• 40g liquid glucose
• 6 gelatine leaves (or 20g powdered gelatine)
• 75g egg whites

Shortbread:

1. Cream the butter and sugar together on a low-speed mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Sift the flour and gradually add to the creamed butter and sugar. Once combined, use the heat from your hands to bring it together until firm but crumbly.
2. Roll the dough between two sheets of baking parchment or silicone mats, prick with a fork then bake in the oven for 10 minutes.
3. Once cooked, quickly cut out circles of the shortbread whilst still hot (to avoid it setting too hard and cracking) and allow to cool on a rack.

Raspberry Insert:

• Blend a handful of raspberries together and pass through a sieve, discarding the seeds. Freeze the purée in small half-sphere moulds and freeze.

Marshmallow:

1. Add the gelatine leaves to a bowl of iced water and allow to bloom. Once bloomed, squeeze the excess water out and put to the side. Pour the egg whites into a standing mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. In a pan, add the lemon juice, caster sugar and liquid glucose and bring to the boil. Continue to boil until the mixture reaches 116°C on a thermometer.
2. Start whisking the egg whites on full speed whilst gradually and carefully pouring the hot syrup down the side of the bowl, making sure you do not pour it on the whisk itself (to avoid hot syrup spraying everywhere). Once all the syrup has been added, pause the mixer and add the gelatine. Turn the mixer back on a slow speed until the gelatine dissolves completely, then turn up the speed to high again. Whisk until the marshmallow looks stiff.
3. Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a large nozzle (or a small cookie cutter!).
4. Place a frozen semi-sphere of purée on a shortbread disc and pipe a bulb or marshmallow on top.
5. Once all shortbreads have been covered, chill in the fridge whilst you melt the chocolate. Gently melt the chocolate over a bain-marie and allow to cool slightly before using. Pour a spoonful over each tea cake and pop them back in the fridge.
6. To decorate, add a small amount of gold leaf to the peaks of the tea cakes. Enjoy!

Originally featured on Anrhegion Melys Richard Holt.

Recipe by Richard Holt.