British Custard Cream Biscuit Print

Custard creams are one of those biscuits that just feel completely normal in a British tea cupboard. Two patterned biscuits, a vanilla-flavoured cream in the middle, and usually a packet sitting somewhere alongside the digestives, bourbons and rich teas. They have been sold in Britain for well over a century, but they have never really been a special-occasion biscuit. They are the sort you put out with a cup of tea, grab during a break or eat two of without thinking much about it.

The funny thing is how decorative they are for something so ordinary. Look closely and there is loads going on: scrolls, little flourishes and a surprisingly elaborate pattern pressed into that familiar rectangle. You can recognise a custard cream before you have even tasted it. That mix of slightly over-the-top decoration and total everyday familiarity is probably one of the reasons it feels so unmistakably British.