When I first became vegan, I was working in a primary school where they had frequent cake sales. I wanted to bake something, and found this vegan empire biscuit recipe. For anyone unfamiliar with the empire biscuit, it is a Scottish delicacy involving two rounds of shortbread sandwiched together with jam in the centre and icing on top, with a glacé cherry or a jelly tot in the centre.
The recipe is really simple, and I opted to top my first batch with jelly tots as they are well-liked by most children, unlike glacé cherries, which would have been my preference! The shortbread biscuits are a little less buttery (unsurprisingly!) than my memories of traditional non-vegan shortbread, but by the time you’ve added jam, icing and sweets, the butteriness is something of a moot point!
The only ‘specialist’ ingredient you need for this recipe is a dairy-free margarine (beware – many margarines contain dairy products), and I normally use either Vitalite or Flora Dairy Free. They can both be bought at my local Sainsbury’s (other supermarkets are available!) and I just buy whichever is cheapest. If pushed, I think I’d say I prefer the Flora, as it’s very buttery and rich.
Making vegan biscuits for a bake sale has the hidden advantage of allowing the kids with dairy allergies (of which there were two in my class alone) to participate, so I got to feel smug for doing my good deed for the day!
I’ve also made these for family, and they ate them very willingly!
3.5/5 – A tasty and useful biscuit that certainly appealed to kids, but it didn’t blow me away.
Things to try:
- What about making it chocolate shortbread?
- What about either a thinner layer of icing all the way to the edge, or a thicker icing splodged more exclusively in the middle?
The Vegan Who Came to Tea 