Cranberry beetroot heart-shaped scones

My lovely wife Lu is very sad at the moment after her nan died this week.  I've been making lots of comfort food like stews and casseroles, and for my Saturday morning baking session today I made her some heart-shaped scones for breakfast in bed.  These are coloured pink with beetroot powder - I bought some in the farmer's market a while ago and haven't known quite what to do with it, but discovered using it in these scones that it's a brilliant natural food colourant.  The beetroot powder has very little taste, just a slightly sweet earthiness to the overall flavour which goes beautifully with the traditional nature of scones.  I also added dried cranberries which have a lovely sweet tartness and bright red colour.  Finally, I added a little of the beetroot powder to whipped double cream, which gave it a lovely pale pink colour and a slight sweetness.

Ingredients

8 oz self raising flour

2 tbsp beetroot powder

1 ½ oz butter or margarine, at room temperature

1 ½ tbsp caster sugar

Pinch of salt

5 fl oz (150 ml) milk

2 oz dried cranberries

A little extra flour

To serve

Double cream

1tsp beetroot powder

Method

1. Heat the oven to 220°C and grease and line a baking sheet.
2. Sift the flour and beetroot powder into a large mixing bowl, add the butter and rub into the flour with your fingertips until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.
3. Stir in the sugar and salt.
4. Add the milk a little at a time, and use a palette knife to stir it together.
5. Add the cranberries to the dough and mix well.
6. Lightly flour a work surface and turn out the dough mixture.  Using floured hands, knead it gently to bring it together. 
7. Use a rolling pin to roll the dough to about an inch thickness. 
8. Use a 5cm heart-shaped cutter to stamp out hearts and place on the baking sheet.
9. Lightly knead together the rest of the dough and stamp out more scones to use it all up.
10. Bake for 12 - 15 mins, and then place on a wire rack to cool slightly.
11. Whip the cream with a teaspoonful of beetroot powder until thick. 
12. Serve warm, sliced and buttered, with jam, cream and strawberries.