Makes a tower with 9 stars and spacer biscuits in between.

Ingredients for shortbread:

500g butter, a room temperature
250g caster sugar
750g plain flour
A few pinches of salt

To construct and decorate:

150g buttercream icing (made with 50g butter and 100g icing sugar and a little vanilla essence)
50g each of dark, milk and white chocolate, or a combination of these
50g roasted hazelnuts (optional but delicious) or cranberries/raisins if you prefer
50g chocolate chips or stars
Some edible glitter or glitter spray

Method:

Cream together the butter, flour, sugar and salt. Form into a ball, flatten, wrap and chill in the fridge for half an hour. It can be easier to
do this in 2 batches.

Roll out the dough to 1cm thick and cut out 9 stars of several different sizes, 4 large rounds and 3 small rounds. Reroll the trimmings and cut
out shapes until you have enough.

Place on a baking tray and chill for an hour. Bake in the AGA baking oven, on the grid shelf on the floor, for 15 - 20 mins. Keep an eye on
them and switch over the two trays if baking together to get them evenly coloured.

Cool for a few minutes then transfer to a cooling rack. The shortbread stars can be made in advance and either frozen prior to baking or
baked and stored in an airtight container.

Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl on the back of the AGA or in the AGA simmering oven for 10 mins or so. Make the buttercream icing
by creaming together the butter and sugar until pale then adding the vanilla essence.

Place a spoonful of buttercream on a serving plate and spread out a little. Take the biggest star and smear a tbsp of buttercream in the
centre. Place this star on the buttercream on the serving plate.

Next, take a large round biscuit to use as a ‘spacer’, top with buttercream and position on top of the first star. Repeat with the remaining stars
and spacers, using the biggest first, until there is just one left, gently pressing each biscuit in place to make a firm tower.

Take the last star, without topping and position on its side on top of the tower.

Pour the melted chocolate in a thin stream so that it drips all the way down the tower. Sprinkle over the nuts and chocolate chips and
decorate with edible glitter or edible glitter spray. Store in a cool place.

Best eaten with a day or two of constructing.