Perfect for your own Talk Like a Pirate Day celebrations, pirate party needs or afternoon tea anytime.
A little bit spicy, a little bit sweet, quick to cook and quick to eat and all dressed up in glorious golden sparkly shiny colour!
Suitable for ages: 2 years and up
Time required: 1.5 hours
Difficulty: 3 out of 5
Spices were, for a time, just as valuable as silver or gold. Pepper, nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves were the makers of empires. When the plague took hold of Europe in the 17th century, nutmeg was thought to hold a miracle cure and could be sold in London at 68,000 times its original price.
Way back when, if a swashbuckler, a privateer, a buccaneer, a cosair or any other variety of glorified maritime criminal we now know as a 'pirate' was fortunate enough to succeed in overtaking a nice merchant vessel, their treasure most likely was a combination of trade cargo - exotic animals (like parrots and monkeys), precious fabrics, some coins, rum and spices!
So spices and gold coins it would seem, go well together.
- A copy of the speculaas recipe
- All the ingredients for your speculaas recipe
- A large bowl, wooden spoon, board, kitchen scales and tablespoon
- Small round cookie cutters (or lids make fine improvised cookie cutters)
- Baking trays and baking paper
- Gold edible spray paint (found at Spotlight or similar)
- Gold/pearl/silver edible glitter (available at supermarkets)
- A treasure chest
- Black writing gel (optional)
- Any other decorations you like
To Make:
Step 1.
Make up your speculaas recipe according to instructions. There’s nothing dangerous about this recipe so perfect for involving children in the making and baking process. Cut the dough into circles of different sizes.
Don’t brush the tops with egg and almonds for this version as it will make the spray paint and glitter less effective in appearance.
If you have odd bits left over you can cut up some other geometric shapes like triangles (gem stones) to bake as well.
Step 2.
Once your cookies are finished baking, lay the out on a tray to cool.
Step 3.
Spray your cooled cookies with an even covering of the gold edible spray paint and sprinkle with a little gold edible glitter.
Step 4.
If you wish to make some extra treasure decorations, rolling some royal icing into beads and threading them onto bakers string using a darning needle makes a pretty string of pearls. Cover in a spot of sugary water and sprinkle with more pearly glitter for effect.
You might also like to cover some other shapes in icing cement and silver cachous for decoration.
Step 5.
Place the cookies into your treasure box with any added decorations you please. Time to put your delicious doubloons out for the plunderers!
Yarr, this be a daring and delicious treat for a peckish pirate!
We’d love to see your creations!
Please send us photos either by email to: web@sea.museum or tag us on Instagram - just tag the photo with our username @sea.museum
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