Royal Christmases seem far from relatable, with unique festive traditions, from entering the dining room in order of title to being weighed before and after their Christmas meal on antique scales to ensure that they have been fed enough.
But with a family-wide ban on Monopoly and a joke present exchange, some are more comparable than others.
This includes festive baking, with royal Christmases known to go heavy on the sweet treats.
Back in 2021, Queen Elizabeth let the public in on one of the royal traditions as the royal family Instagram account shared the recipe and a video tutorial of one of the royal sweet treats over the Christmas period, Cinnamon stars.
"The Royal pastry chefs are excited to share their recipe for 'Cinnamon Stars' with you to enjoy over Christmas. #ARoyalChristmas", the royal family posted alongside the recipe with a cookie emoji.
This week, the recipe resurfaced and it is unsurprisingly going viral.
Here is the royal cinnamon star recipe:
Ingredients
360g Icing Sugar 85g Egg White 20g Lemon Juice 300g Ground Almonds 115g Mixed Peel ½ Lemon, zested 12g Ground Cinnamon ¼ tsp Ground Cloves
Method
1. Blitz the mixed peel into a paste-like texture, set aside.
2. Whip the icing sugar, egg white with lemon juice into a soft peak meringue. Take 1/3 out and keep aside to top the dough with a thin layer later.
3. Add all remaining ingredients into the larger part of meringue and combine to a dough-like texture.
4. Knead the dough together with your hands and flatted onto a baking paper lined baking tray. Placing a sheet of baking paper on top, roll it down to about 1cm thickness.
5. Remove paper from the top and spread a thin layer of meringue over the dough. Keep it as smooth as possible.
6. Rest the sheet of dough in the fridge for a minimum of 1 hour.
7. Remove the dough from fridge and start cutting it into shapes with a knife or cutters. Be creative. Stars & Diamond shapes work well. To use the cinnamon star cutter or round cutter, a bowl of hot water is required. Dip the cutter into the water first and in between cutting the shapes. This helps to release the cookie easily from the cutter.
8. Bake in the oven at 160C fan for 12-15 minutes. Best is to bake with bottom heat only so that the top stays white and does not discolour. Cookie is baked when you are gently able to lift the edges of the paper. The centre should still be soft and sticky.
9. Leave to cool for about 30 min before removing from tray.
10. Keep in an airtight container for up to 2 months.
11. Enjoy!
Well, this is lovely.
If you'll excuse us, we're off to bake cinnamon stars.