Easter fun

Bake these tasty biscuit treats in traditional Easter shapes

What you need:

• Weighing scales
• Mixing bowls
• Easter-themed biscuit cutters
• Palette knife

Makes 12-18 biscuits
Ingredients

• 100g (4oz) softened butter
• 50g (2oz) caster sugar
• 175g (6oz) plain flour
• Pinch of salt
• Few drops vanilla essence
• 175g (6oz) sifted icing sugar
• 1.5 tbsp water

What to do:

1. Pre heat the oven to 180 C/350 F/gas mark 4
2. Beat the butter and sugar together until thoroughly combined
3. Sift together the flour and salt
4. Add to butter mixture with a few drops of vanilla essence
5. Mix to form a fairly stiff dough - if too dry, add a little water
6. Roll dough into a ball with your hands, then roll out on a floured surface using a rolling pin dusted in flour
7. Cut out biscuits using rabbit-, chick- and egg-shaped cutters
8. Collect all trimming and continue to roll until dough is finished
9. Arrange on a greased or lined baking tray and cook for about 15 minutes or until golden brown

TIP: take the biscuits out of the oven while they are still slightly soft and they will harden as they cool

To make icing:

1. Put sifted icing sugar into bowl
2. Add water a little at a time until icing is easily spreadable
3. For different colours of icing, separate white icing into three bowls. For yellow icing: add a few drops of yellow food colouring and some lemon juice and mix. For chocolate icing: in a separate bowl, mix some cocoa or drinking chocolate powder with a little water to make a paste. Add the paste to the white icing and mix. For white icing: simply add few drops of vanilla essence

TIP: For all the above, you may need to add a little extra icing sugar as extra liquid can make the icing runny

To decorate biscuits:

1. Spoon icing over the biscuits (yellow chicks, brown and white rabbits, and brown eggs), and smooth with a palette knife
2. When dry, add details using piping bags or shop-bought tubes of writing icing