Iced Gems! Those tiny British biscuits with a pointy blob of crunchy icing on top. Watched Bake Off this week? Then you know. Suddenly everybody wants an iced gems recipe.
Short answer on how: tiny butter biscuits, coin size. Cool ’em. Squeeze a stiff royal icing star on top of each. Then into a barely-warm oven they go, until that icing turns hard and crunchy. That’s really it. The fiddly bits are the icing (has to be stiff, like really stiff) and the drying, and we’ll walk through both.
About that Bake Off thing. Series 17, Biscuit Week, aired September 30, 2026. Technical challenge: 30 identical Iced Gems. Plenty of the bakers had a rough time with it, which is kind of reassuring honestly. They look like nothing. They’re not nothing.
Wait, What Are Iced Gems?
If you grew up in the UK you can skip this bit. For everyone else: they’re a kids’ party biscuit. Small, plain, flat, about the size of a quarter, with a peak of hard icing in pink, yellow, white, green or purple. The ones in shops are sold under the McVitie’s/Jacob’s name these days. In Malaysia and Singapore there’s a near-twin called biskut ais jem that a lot of people get weirdly nostalgic about.
Here in the US? Good luck. You’ll mostly find them at British import shops, and not often. Making them at home is honestly better anyway. The store ones are kind of dry and chalky, homemade ones are buttery.
So What’s That Icing Made Of?
Royal icing. It’s powdered sugar whipped up with egg white or meringue powder till it’s thick enough to stand in a point. Let it dry and boom, crunchy, just like the packet ones. Some folks online bake meringue on top instead. Lighter. Kind of melts on your tongue. Nice, but not the same crunch. We went with royal icing because that’s the one that tastes like the real thing.
| Royal icing top | Meringue top | |
|---|---|---|
| Bite | Hard, crunchy | Light, melty |
| Made with | Powdered sugar + egg white or meringue powder | Egg white + sugar, whipped |
| Drying | Low oven 45 to 60 min, or overnight on the counter | Has to bake low and slow |
Ingredients for This Iced Gems Recipe
Biscuit-wise you probably have everything already. Regular flour (skip self-rising, they’ll puff), a little sugar, cold butter, an egg yolk, splash of milk, vanilla, pinch of salt. The sugar is kept low on purpose. The icing does the sweet work.
Icing: meringue powder or a pasteurized egg white, powdered sugar, few drops of water, gel colors. Gel! The little liquid bottles from the grocery store water it down and then your stars just kinda… sag. Sad stars.
Stuff that makes life easier: a 1-inch round cutter (a clean bottle cap works in a pinch, no shame), a few piping bags, and a small open star tip like a Wilton #21 or #18.
RECIPE
Iced Gems
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 150 g
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar 50 g
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 5 tablespoons cold unsalted butter 70 g, cubed
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 to 2 tablespoons milk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons meringue powder or 1 large pasteurized egg white
- 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar 300 g, sifted
- 3 to 4 tablespoons water
- gel food coloring pink, yellow, green and purple
Method
- Whisk the flour, sugar and salt. Rub in the cold butter with your fingertips (or pulse in a food processor) until it looks like damp sand.
- Add the egg yolk, vanilla and 1 tablespoon milk and mix until the dough comes together, adding more milk a teaspoon at a time only if it’s dry. Flatten into a disc and chill for 20 minutes.
- Heat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Roll the dough to 1/8 inch (3 mm) thick on a lightly floured surface and cut 1-inch (2.5 cm) rounds. Re-roll the scraps.
- Place the rounds on parchment-lined baking sheets about 1/2 inch apart and chill for 10 minutes so they stay flat.
- Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until just golden at the edges. Cool completely on the trays.
- Beat the meringue powder with 3 tablespoons water until foamy. Add the powdered sugar and beat on medium-high for 4 to 5 minutes, until thick, glossy and holding stiff peaks.
- Divide the icing into bowls and tint each with a little gel coloring. Spoon into piping bags fitted with small open star tips (like Wilton #21).
- Hold the bag straight up just above a biscuit, squeeze a star that covers most of the top, stop squeezing, then lift sharply to make a peak.
- Dry in the oven at its lowest setting, 200°F (95°C) or below, for 45 to 60 minutes, or air-dry for 6 to 8 hours, until the icing is completely hard. Store airtight.
Nutrition
Notes
Private Notes
Tried this recipe?
Let us know how it was!Piping Them So They Look Right
This is where Bake Off contestants lost points, so slow down here.
Icing first. Lift the beater. Does the tip stand up straight? Good. Does it flop over? Keep beating, because floppy icing turns into a puddle on the biscuit in like a minute flat. Then hold the bag straight up and down, tip just above the biscuit. Squeeze. Stop squeezing. Then lift, fast. That’s how you get the little pointy top.
Don’t get fancy with swirls. One squeeze. Swirly towers look cute for about four seconds and then they tip over or snap off. You want the icing covering most of the biscuit with a thin ring of biscuit still showing around the edge, that’s the classic look.
Do a few practice stars on parchment first. Scrape them back in the bag. Nobody needs to know.
Drying the Icing
Two ways. The fast one: oven on its lowest setting, ideally 200°F (95°C) or lower, for 45 minutes to an hour. If your oven runs hot, prop the door open with a wooden spoon. The icing should stay pale. Any browning and it’s too warm.
The slow one: just leave them out, uncovered, 6 to 8 hours or overnight. Works great on a dry day. On a humid day, not so much, royal icing hates humidity.
How do you know they’re done? Bite one. Should snap.
When Things Go Wrong
Biscuits puffed up into little domes? Dough was too warm or too thick. Roll it to about 1/8 inch and stick the cut rounds in the fridge for 10 minutes before baking.
Stars went flat? Icing’s too soft, or you used liquid coloring. Beat in another spoonful of powdered sugar. Icing sliding off? The biscuits were still warm. Patience. Colors looking blotchy or faded? Sunlight does that, so dry them away from the window. And if they’re sticky after drying, your kitchen’s humid, put them back in the low oven for 15 minutes.
Fun Twists
Chocolate version: swap 2 tablespoons of the flour for cocoa and top with white icing. For Halloween go orange, purple and black, they look great next to our Halloween party foods. Christmas, red and green with a sprinkle on top. A drop of lemon, almond or peppermint extract in the icing changes the whole thing. Gluten-free works fine with a 1:1 GF flour blend.
Into decorated cookies in general? Our soft pumpkin cookies with maple icing and the M&M mint cookies make a fun mixed cookie tray with these. Hosting a party? Put out a bowl of gems next to a Knorr spinach dip and some mini egg salad toasts.
Storing Them
Airtight tin, room temperature, up to 2 weeks. Not the fridge, it’s too damp in there and the icing goes tacky. For gifts, little cellophane bags with a twist tie are perfect, they travel fine once the icing’s fully set. Plain biscuits with no icing freeze for about 3 months.
FAQ
How do you make Iced Gems?
Bake tiny 1-inch butter biscuits, cool them, pipe stiff royal icing stars on top with a star tip, and dry them until the icing’s hard.
What’s the icing on Iced Gems?
Royal icing. Powdered sugar, egg white or meringue powder, a little water, beaten stiff and colored with gel.
Have Iced Gems been discontinued?
Nope. They’re still sold in the UK under McVitie’s/Jacob’s and pop up in some British import shops in the US.
Why won’t my icing harden?
Too soft when you piped it, or it just needs longer. Another 15 to 30 minutes in a very low oven usually does it.
Can I skip the meringue powder?
Yes, use one large pasteurized egg white. Since the icing isn’t cooked, pasteurized is the safer pick, which is what the FDA recommends for anything with raw egg.
How many does this make?
Around 60 with a 1-inch cutter. Enough to do the Bake Off challenge twice, if you’re feeling brave.
Little trick: stand your filled piping bags tip-down in tall glasses. Switching colors takes two seconds and nothing dries out while you work.
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