Baking Blitz - Belgium Biscuits

Today's manic lunchtime baking feat was a request from a workmate last week when I brought in the ginger kisses. Another kiwi baking classic I haven't made before - but again, a very straightforward recipe, and though they suffered a little from not being properly cool before I iced them, they fit into my one hour time constraint.

I apologise for the photos; even worse than usual, but our camera has been malfunctioning and has gone in to be repaired, so all my photos for the next few day will be courtesy of my iPhone, which has no flash and isn't the best camera... Anyway, excuses aside:

As you can see from above they were a bit of a mess by the time I got them on the plate. Still, my workmates were very happy with them and several were surprised (when will they learn!? ;-) ) when I said I had made them myself.

Belgium Biscuits (makes about 16 double layer biscuits)
125g butter, softened
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp cocoa

Preheat oven to 180 C. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then add egg and beat well. Sift all remaining ingredients into the bowl and mix to make a firm dough.

On a lightly floured surface roll the dough to a 3mm thickness. Use a round cutter (mine is about 6cm) to cut rounds. Bake for 10-15 minutes, until cooked but not too dark.

Icing
Mix 1 cup of icing sugar with 1/4 tsp raspberry essence. Add water to make a thick, spreadable icing. When cold, ice half the biscuits. Sprinkle with raspberry jelly crystals (or tint sugar pink by mixing with a drop of red food colouring). Spread raspberry jam on the remaining biscuits then sandwich together with the iced tops.