My daughter was a tomboy growing up, so I was quite pleased when she discovered American Girl books and fell in love with Felicity…until I read the books and realized that the reason she liked Felicity so much was because she snuck out of the house at night, wore boy’s clothing, and “borrowed a horse”.
Since she enjoyed Felicity so much, she consented to tea parties and dresses. Shrewsbury Cakes were a requirement for a Felicity tea party. The name is misleading; they are really more like shortbread. They are flavored with rose water, which my daughter and I learned to make ourselves. Because these cookies are so flavorful, I was able to replace the butter with non-hydrogenated organic shortening without compromising the flavor.
Gluten-Free Shrewsbury Cakes
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Author: Alea
Recipe type: Dessert
Serves: 24
Ingredients
- 1 cup sugar
- 1½ cups rice flour
- ¾ cup tapioca flour
- ¾ cup potato starch
- 1½ teaspoon xanthan gum
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 cup shortening (I like Spectrum Organic Non-hydrogenated Shortening)
- 2 eggs
- 3 tablespoons rose water (How to make Rose Water)
Directions
- In a large bowl, combine, sugar, flours, potato starch, xantham gum, and spices. Mix well.
- Cut shortening into flour mixture using a pastry blender or two forks.
- In a small bowl, beat eggs. Stir rose water into eggs.
- Add egg mixture to the dry ingredients and mix well. If you are having trouble mixing in all of the flour, you can use your hands to blend it in.
- Refrigerate dough for an hour.
- After dough has refrigerated, preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Roll dough out to ¼ inch thick, using rice flour if necessary to prevent sticking. Use cookie cutters or a glass to cut dough.
- Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes or until edges are golden brown.
Notes
Once Felicity was replaced with Lord of the Rings, lembas bread became the rage. You can use this recipe to make lembas bread by rolling it out to ¼ thick and using a pizza cutter to cut it in squares. All other directions remain the same. We decorated the Shrewsbury Cakes with Decorator's Icing and Candied Flowers.
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