Easter tree decorations recipe

If an egg hunt isn't enough distraction, let the kids get creative with these adorable Easter tree biscuits. For the dough, use Fiona Cairns' vanilla butter biscuits recipe

Makes 24

• 1 x vanilla butter biscuits dough (see recipe above)
• Plain flour, to dust
• Selection of biscuit cutters (Fiona used a rabbit, an egg and a chick, each 7-8cm long)
• 700g white sugarpaste
• 1 pot yellow food colour paste
• 1 pot green food colour paste
• Icing sugar, to dust
• 60g bag white royal icing
• 60g bag pink royal icing
• 60g bag yellow royal icing
• 2m lilac gingham ribbon, 5mm-wide
• 2m orange gingham ribbon, 5mm-wide
• 2m pink gingham ribbon, 5mm-wide

How to make Easter tree decorations

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC/fan 170ºC/350ºF/gas mark 4. Roll out the dough using plenty of flour (it is quite sticky) to about 3-4mm thick. Cut out the biscuits with your chosen cutters and lay on 2 baking sheets lined with baking parchment. Make holes towards the top of each with a skewer for threading through the ribbon. Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until pale gold. Cool on a wire rack, re-forming the ribbon holes with the skewer.

2. Divide the sugarpaste into 3 and place in separate polythene bags. Leave one white for the rabbits, colour one pale yellow for the chicks and the other pale green for the eggs. On a clean work surface dusted with icing sugar, roll out the white sugarpaste to about 2mm thick. Cut out with the rabbit cutter, making as many as you have rabbit biscuits. Pipe a little royal icing on to the biscuit and stick on the sugarpaste rabbit. Make a hole in the sugarpaste in the same place as that on the biscuit for the ribbon.

3. Repeat with the yellow sugarpaste on the chicks and the green for the eggs. Pipe pink dots on the rabbit and an eye, a pink eye for the chick and yellow patterns on the egg. Allow the sugarpaste and icing to set overnight. Cut the ribbons into 25cm lengths and thread through each biscuit.

© Fiona Cairns - Bake and Decorate, Tea Time Luxury