Brought to you by Discover Ireland

Trick or treat!

Get yourself in the Halloween mood with this deliciously spooky Dracula Cookie Smash Cake. For more information on the Bram Stoker Festival, visit the Festivals Breaks hub here.  Ingredients For the vanilla cookie dough: 150g butter, soft 150g caster sugar 1 medium egg, beaten 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 325g plain flour To decorate: 100g white roll-out icing 50g black roll-out icing 1 packet (350g) royal icing sugar - reserve 1 teaspoon Red food colouring 2 edible icing eyes Preparation 1. Cream the butter and sugar together using an electrical mixer until just combined. Add the egg and vanilla extract. Then mix again. 2. Sieve in the flour and mix until it resembles large breadcrumbs then knead with your hand until it forms a dough ball. Divide into 6 equal pieces and wrap each one in cling film, flattening slightly. Put into the fridge and chill for 30 minutes. 3. Place one piece of dough in between two sheets of baking parchment. Roll out to an even thickness of 5mm. Sprinkle a little flour on the base of a 15cm round cake tin and place on top of the dough. Use a pizza cutter or sharp knife to cut around the cake tin. Then cut out the middle with a 10cm round cookie cutter. Carefully remove the dough and keep it. Use the baking parchment to lift the cookie dough onto a baking tray and chill in the fridge for 15 minutes. Then repeat this with the other pieces of dough. 4. Gather all the scraps of the excess dough, divide in half and roll out in between two sheets of baking parchment and cut out with 15cm round cake tin. 5. Preheat the oven to 170˚C/150˚C fan/gas mark 3. Bake the cookies in batches for 20 minutes. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack. 6. Make the royal icing sugar according to the instruction on the packet. Add a few drops of red food colouring to the icing and mix well. Then put the icing into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle. Wrap the piping bag with cling film until needed. This prevents the icing from drying out. 7. Roll out the white icing to 15cm circle in-between two sheets of baking parchment. Peel off the top sheet. Take one whole baked cookie and evenly spread a thin layer of red royal icing. Carefully place it on top of the rolled out icing cutting around the cookie, trimming off the excess icing. 8. Place the black icing in between two sheets of baking parchment and roll out to half the size of the cake tin. Peel off the top sheet of baking parchment. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of the reserved icing sugar over the base of the cake tin and place it on top of the icing and cut around it. Cut out two semi-circles with the 10cm round cookie cutter to form Draculas hairline. Brush a little water over the black icing and place the white iced cookie on top. Flip the cookie over and peel off the baking parchment. 9. Gather together the scraps of black icing and roll out two 6cm sausage shapes for the eyebrows. Then roll out a smaller sausage shape for a nose and a 10cm long piece for the mouth. Brush each piece with a small amount of water to stick to the icing. Add in the eyes. Roll out two small balls of white icing and shape into fangs then place on each side of the mouth and paint with red food colouring. 10. Use the other whole cookie for the base, piping a thin layer of icing around the edge, and stick one cookie with a hole on top. Pipe a few more dots of icing around and stick another cookie on top. Repeat this with the other pieces of cookie. 11. Fill inside the cookie stack with sweets. When filled, place the decorated Dracula face on top. Starting from the bottom, pipe straight vertical lines around the sides of cookie cake. Leave for about 8 hours to allow the icing to become hard and dry. 12. Now smash open the cookie cake to reveal the sweet surprise.   Brought to you by Discover Ireland