Eggless lotus-shaped shortbread with soft pink icing petals on a gold thali

Little Offerings

Lotus Cookies

Recipe at a glance

Prep time: 25 mins
Cook time: 12 mins
Total time: 50 mins
Servings: About 18 cookies

A gentle rose and cardamom shortbread topped with piped pink buttercream petals in the shape of a lotus — a beautiful offering on any thali. The lotus is a symbol of purity, which felt right for the offering.

A Little Offering

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Step-by-step method

Family-friendly

Two lists so everyone knows their job — grown-ups handle heat and blades, little hands do the fun bits.

🧒 Little Baker Jobs

🥣 Measure the icing sugar and flour.
🌸 Sniff the rose water — how does it smell?
🥄 Stir in the pink colour a tiny drop at a time.
🪷 Watch the petals appear as a grown-up pipes.

👩 Grown-Up Jobs

🔥 Preheat the oven to 170°C.
🔪 Roll and cut the chilled dough.
♨️ Bake and cool the biscuits.
🌸 Pipe the lotus petals.

Full detailed method

1Cream butter, icing sugar, rose water and cardamom until pale.
2Stir in flour to form a dough. Chill 20 mins.
3Roll to ½ cm thick and cut with a small round or flower cutter.
4Bake at 170°C for 10–12 mins. Cool completely.
5Make the rose buttercream — always start with the butter on its own: put the softened butter in a bowl and, using an electric hand whisk or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat on medium-high for 4–5 minutes until almost white, whipped and airy (this is what gives the petals a clean piped edge). On the lowest speed, add the icing sugar a spoonful at a time. Add the rose water and a tiny drop of pink colour, then beat back on medium-high for another 3–4 minutes until pale, fluffy and silky. Fit a piping bag with a small petal tip.
6Pipe five petals in a circle on each cookie to form a lotus.

Lotus Cookies

Lotus Cookies

Ingredients

For the biscuits

For the lotus petals

Step-by-step method

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