EASTER BUNNY BISCUITS

EASTER BUNNY BISCUITS

(makes about 40 biscuits)

INGREDIENTS

Biscuit dough

260 g butter (at room temperature)

150 ml (120 g) castor sugar

250 ml (125 g) icing sugar

2 eggs

Seeds scraped from 1 vanilla pod or 5 ml vanilla essence

770 ml (400 g) cake flour

230 ml (110 g) cornflour (Maizena®),

Extra cornflour for rolling

Royal icing

5 egg whites

5 ml lemon juice

1 kg icing sugar, sifted

METHOD:

Biscuit dough method:

• Cream the butter, castor sugar and icing sugar together in a large mixing bowl.
• Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla.
• In a separate bowl, sift the cake flour and cornflour together.
• Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and mix to make a dough.
• Rest for 1 hour in the fridge before using.
• Preheat the oven to 170 °C. Grease and line two baking sheets.
• Lightly dust the work surface with cornflour and roll out the dough to about 5 mm thick. Cut out the bunny shapes.
• Place onto the prepared baking sheets and refrigerate for 15 minutes before baking – this will prevent shrinking and uneven browning of the biscuits.
• Bake for 8–10 minutes.
• Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
• Decorate as desired once completely cool.

Royal icing method:

• Beat the egg whites lightly with a fork. Add the lemon juice
• Place the icing sugar in a large bowl and add two-thirds of the egg white. Using an electric mixer, beat at a low speed to incorporate the icing.
• Add more egg white as needed to get a firm, stiff peak consistency. The icing must be smooth and of a spreading consistency. Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to a month.
• This icing must not be aerated – otherwise small air bubbles show when you use it to pipe – just mix to get it mixed and try not to incorporate air into it

Decorating the biscuits:

• Pipe the outline and edges of the bunnies with the royal icing and wait for it to dry completely. You can make it any colour.
• To fill in the gaps, mix the royal icing with food colouring to get the colours you want and then thin down with a small amount of water to get a runny consistency.
• Fill squeeze bottles with the various colours and use the nozzles to flood the biscuits between the piped lines of royal icing.
• Use the royal icing to pipe detail on the bunnies once they are completely dry and the icing has set.