Tape Deck Heart Cookies

It's rare these days, but Tape Deck Heart was one of those albums where I actually counted down to its release date. It had been a while since we'd had a new Turner fix, so I was pretty stoked when I got home from Record Store Day - after meeting the man himself - to find my pre-order from Rough Trade had arrived early. A reward for shopping indie I like to think. Well, that was back in April and I've played it most days since, so I think it's safe to say it'll be making my top five list for 2013.

When Frank ran a Tape Deck Art competition around the time of its release, asking people to draw their interpretations of the album's song titles, I had a moment of complete insanity. 'Ummm, with biscuit as my medium maybe I could play along with this game...' I thought. Because in my head I believe I can turn anything into a biscuit/cupcake. In the end, I just opted for recreating the tattoo designs from the sleeve, since being arty with biscuits is a challenge in itself.

So armed with a lot of sugar and peanut butter, here's how I turned Tape Deck Heart into Bake Deck Heart...

Ingredients

225g margarine (plus extra for greasing)
225g smooth peanut butter
200g brown sugar
200g granulated sugar
3 large eggs
275g plain flour (plus extra for dusting)
Few drops of red food colouring

Method

Mix margarine and peanut butter until smooth.

Add both sugars.

Gradually add in two beaten eggs and flour.

Once the biscuit dough is formed, divide into three.

Keep one of the dough balls its original biscuit shade. Add a few drops of red food colouring to one to make a pinky shade and add more colouring to the third to create a darker red shade.

Put in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes.

Set oven to 180C or Gas Mark 4 and grease baking trays with margarine.

Dust rolling pin and surface with flour to prevent sticking.

As someone is yet to create a 'Tape Deck Heart' set of cookie cutters - people with 3D printers, come the fuck on... - I cut all of the pieces out by hand and stuck them together using a bit of egg wash (this is where your third egg comes in handy). The only bit I did use a cutter for was the cassette tape, as I treated myself to a rather expensive, but completely essentially cassette cookie cutter.

For each biscuit choose one shade to use as your base and cut out the full outline shape. For the lighthouses and 'Recovery' use the plain biscuit colour as your base and add the darker pieces by sticking them on with your egg wash. For the 'Tape Deck Heart and flower use the darker dough as your base, then add the other colours as before.

Bake for around 20 - 30 minutes, but keep checking them and turning them round. When baked, place on a wire rack to cool and then nom, nom, nom...

My top ten older Turner songs to bake to...