Solar System Biscuits
Model Universe / Fascinating Food. Tasty snacks with a science theme!
If the Orionids have left you hungry for more then these biscuits make ideal treats for any sky-gazing nights you might be planning. Of course, you don’t have to be into astronomy to enjoy making these biscuits, and what better way to introduce your budding astronomers to the Solar System than to make edible versions of the planets!
Age range 7-14 with adult supervision
What You Need
- 175g plain flour
- 100g butter or margarine
- 50g caster sugar
- Four different sized biscuit cutters
- Items to decorate – coloured icing, hundreds and thousands and liquorice.
What you do
- Pre-heat the oven to 150°C/300°F Gas 2
- Cream the butter or margarine and caster sugar together until they are light and fluffy. Stir in the flour and, once mixed, knead the dough together until it forms a ball. Add a sprinkle of flour if the dough is sticky.
- Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface until it is about 5mm thick.
- Use the smallest biscuit cutter to cut three biscuits from the dough (Pluto, Mercury and Mars).
- Use the next-size-up biscuit cutter to make two biscuits (Venus and Earth).
- Use the next larger biscuit cutter to make another two biscuits (Neptune and Uranus).
- Use the largest biscuit cutter to cut the last two biscuits (Saturn and Jupiter).
- Place the biscuits on a baking tray and bake in the centre of the oven for 25 minutes or until golden brown.
- Let the biscuits cool before decorating.
- Keep track of the planets as you cut them out so you can decorate them correctly after they are cooked.
Now for the decoration:
Mercury has a rocky surface and is orange-red in colour, so use coloured icing and hundreds and thousands to decorate this biscuit.
Venus is covered with thick, yellow clouds so you will need yellow icing.
Earth is an obvious one! Decorate with green and blue icing and a sprinkle of icing sugar to resemble the clouds.
Decorate your Mars biscuit with red icing.
Jupiter is a giant ball of yellow, orange and red gas arranged in stripes. Use stripes of coloured icing decorate with a red sweet in the middle to resemble Jupiter’s Great Red Spot.
Saturn looks yellow because of its foggy atmosphere and is famous for its rings, so use yellow icing and lay a few pieces of liquorice on the biscuit to resemble its rings.
Uranus looks green so decorate with green icing.
Neptune is blue with faint stripes so decorate with blue icing and make faint stripes with sprinkles of icing sugar.
Finally for Pluto, sprinkle a little icing sugar on the top of the biscuit to resemble this icy, rocky planet.
Now all you have to do is arrange the biscuits in the correct planetary order and serve.
Extensions Ideas
Remember the order of the planets by using the mnemonic:
My Very Easy Method Just Shows Us Nine Planets
Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto
Adhere to the guidelines for Food and Hygiene (Be Safe! 3rd edition section 6). Take care when using cookers and handling hot baking trays.
This experiment came from Planet Science's Little Book of Experiments.
On Sunday 26th August, hundreds of Doctor Who fans descended upon Manchester to break a world record for the largest number of Daleks (or people wearing Dalek costumes) in one place.
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