Pre heat the oven to 180 C/350 F/gas mark 4
Beat the butter and sugar together until thoroughly combined
Sift together the flour and salt
Add to butter mixture with a few drops of vanilla essence
Mix to form a fairly stiff dough - if too dry, add a little water
Roll dough into a ball with your hands, then roll out on a floured surface using a rolling pin dusted in flour
Cut out biscuits using rabbit-, chick- and egg-shaped cutters
Collect all trimming and continue to roll until dough is finished
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:

Put sifted icing sugar into bowl
Add water a little at a time until icing is easily spreadable
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:

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

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Easter fun