Chocolate Honey Jumbles with Pink Ombre Icing

By Chris Scheuer | Updated on August 4, 2025

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Chocolate and a few extra spices add a little bit of a grown-up touch to this favorite childhood cookie.

Have you ever had a friend that you've never actually met in person but but never the less you felt like the two of you were kindred spirits? That's how I've felt about my friend Claire from the very beginning .................
................. I'm not sure how we even first connected as we hail from opposite sides of the globe, but we've been blogging buddies almost since the very beginning days of The Café. I think you'll enjoy meeting and getting to know Claire as much as I have ................... she's an amazing little cook, not being daunted by even the most complicated recipes or challenging techniques. Claire's here today with a fun and fabulous looking recipe, I'll let her tell you all about it but be sure to take a hop on over to "the land down under, say hello to Claire and check out her wonderful blog!

~~~~~

I'm Claire from Claire K Creations and I'm so excited to be visiting over here at The Café today although I wish I was here in person. I'm from all the way over in Brisbane, Australia.

When Chris asked me to guest post so she could have more time to spend with her family and its newest member I jumped at the chance and knew I had to make something that you could serve to welcome a new baby.

I waited with baited breath to see whether I'd be baking something fit for a king or pretty enough for a princess and when the beautiful little Emery Kate arrived I had my recipe.

There is a little sentimentality behind these honey jumbles. You see when I was younger, much unlike now, I had a very limited repertoire of what I would eat. Honey Jumbles were on my acceptable list and I was always delighted to find them in my lunch box for morning tea. I'm not sure if you have them in The USA but here, they were traditionally ginger fingers spread with pink or white icing that set nice and hard. The biscuit wasn't crunchy at all like gingerbread but pillow-like inside, the only crisp part being the sweet icing.

Sadly you can't buy them anymore but my Honey Jumbles bring back the same memories. I couldn't just make any old honey jumbles to celebrate such an important arrival. Chocolate and a few extra spices add a little bit of a grown up touch to this childhood favourite.

I didn't stop there though. While it's not as clear in the photos as I'd like, the icing was an ombre effect achieved through adding a few tiny drops of pink colouring after icing every two biscuits.

I should say it was intentional but some of the photos remind me of little ballet slippers, something I'm sure is a feature in Chris's family.

So what do you think? Pretty enough for a princess?

Thanks for having me Chris and thanks for welcoming me to The Café everyone. I'd love it if you visited me down under at Claire K Creations.

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Chocolate Honey Jumbles with Pink Ombre Icing

Chris Scheuer
Servings 48
Calories 78

Ingredients
  

Ingredients

  • 60 g 2oz butter
  • ½ cup firmly packed brown sugar
  • Âľ cup golden syrup
  • 1 free-range egg
  • 2 ÂĽ cups plain, all-purpose flour
  • ½ cup self-raising flour
  • ÂĽ cup cocoa powder
  • ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon mixed spice
  • 2 teaspoon ground ginger

Ingredients for the Icing/Frosting

  • Juice of half a lemon
  • 1 free-range egg white
  • 1 ½ cups icing sugar, confectioners sugar
  • Pink food colouring
  • Toothpick

Instructions
 

  1. Directions:
  2. Place the butter, sugar and golden syrup in a small saucepan and heat over low heat, stirring, until the mixture is nice and smooth.
  3. Transfer the mixture to the bowl of your electric mixer and leave to cool for 10 minutes.
  4. Add the egg and beat it through then mix in the flours, cocoa, bicarbonate of soda and spices.
  5. Mix until the dough is no longer sticky.
  6. Spread a piece of plastic wrap on your bench and shape the dough into a ball on top of it then flatten it out to a disc shape.
  7. Wrap it up and place it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
  8. Pre-heat the oven to 160C (350F) and line two baking trays with parchment paper.
  9. Take the dough out of the fridge and cut it in half like a pizza then in half again and repeat until you have 8 equal wedges.
  10. Flour your bench and then working with one wedge at a time, roll the dough into a sausage shape 2cm (1in) thick and 30cm (12in) long.
  11. Slice it up into 5cm (2in) pieces then shape the ends to round out the corners. Place them on the baking trays leaving 2cm (1in) between each one. Repeat with the rest of the dough.
  12. 10. Bake the biscuits for 15 minutes or until they are just firm to touch. Leave them to rest on the baking tray for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
  13. 11. To make the icing, whisk the lemon juice and egg white together until frothy then slowly add the icing sugar. You may not need the whole 1 ½ cups but you will need to make the icing quite thick so it doesn’t drizzle down the sides of the biscuits.
  14. 12. Pour a little pink food colouring into a small ramekin.
  15. 13. When the biscuits have cooled, spread two with icing. Dip the toothpick in the pink colouring then dab it in the icing. Repeat so you have dipped it three times then stir the icing until the colour is uniform.  Ice two more biscuits then repeat. (You can leave this step out and make them all one colour if you like.)
  16. Leave the icing to set and then gobble them up.

Notes

Recipe adapted from Super Food Ideas, April 2013

Nutrition

Calories: 78kcalCarbohydrates: 16gProtein: 1gFat: 1gSaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 6mgSodium: 25mgPotassium: 20mgFiber: 0gSugar: 10gVitamin A: 35IUCalcium: 5mgIron: 0.4mg
PRINTABLE RECIPE

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27 Comments

  1. What a pleasure to meet Claire with such amazingly pretty pictures of these Honey Jumble Cookies - I had never heard of them before but the recipe sounds like they taste fabulous and they certainly look perfect for welcoming a little princess! Delightful post!

  2. So glad Claire is introducing the wonder of Honey Jumbles to your readers Chris! And Honey Jumbles with spice and chocolate, perfect 🙂

  3. Hi Chris & Claire, beautiful guest post. The cookies look so cute and addictive. Thanks for sharing. 🙂

    Have a nice week ahead to both of you.

  4. Lovely post Claire! So nice to meet you and can't wait to visit you again. The pink icing is a beautiful touch 🙂

  5. They're gorgeous Claire. I thought the ones we used to buy for school lunch boxes were made with honey rather than ginger? Maybe you Brisbanites were given a different brew xx

  6. Nice to meet you Claire! These cookies are so beautiful. Your styling is so dreamy and gorgeous. I wish I have a few pieces for myself. 🙂

  7. We don't have these cookies here is the US, and so it's a treat to get this recipe, they look amazing. I'm fascinated by the combination of cocoa with the golden syrup and ginger, I'm not sure I've ever tasted anything like that. Lovely post, and it's nice to meet you!

  8. Beautiful cookies from Claire, I love the contrast of the light pink against the rich chocolate!

  9. Very pretty and what a unique cookie. Your pictures are wonderful Claire! Thank you for the guest post 🙂

  10. These are lovely (quite fit for a princess) and sound delicious! I love learning about cookies from around the world. 🙂 For Americans reading this recipe who may not have access to golden syrup, honey or corn syrup usually works well as a substitute. However, my regular supermarket has Lyle's golden syrup in the pancake syrup aisle and I think the flavor is delicious. I actually use golden syrup as a substitute for honey or corn syrup in American recipes! Thank you, Claire. I will be trying these soon. 🙂

    1. Thanks Wendy. I put the American version of everything else but I didn't realise golden syrup was hard to come by. I sometimes use molasses if you have that but yes honey would work as well.

  11. I never heard of these kind of cookies, but they sound amazing! Beautiful pictures! Chris, what a wonderful guest poster! 🙂