3 Easter Treats

HAPPY EASTER! 

I think Easter is my favourite time of year. The weather is getting warmer, the days are getting longer and the daffodils are out. Its also an excuse to eat as much chocolate as you possibly can and to do some themed baking. I also enjoy giving out Easter presents and sharing what I have baked, it just makes me happy. All of this combined with four days off from work, what could be better. I may have to wear elasticated waists and baggy tops by Tuesday though. Here are some tasty treats to get you through the long weekend.

Easter Shaped Biscuits

I got the cookie cutters from Lakeland, they are really fun and perfect for easter.

Ingredients

200g Softened Butter

150g Caster Sugar

2 Large Egg Yolks

400g Plain Flour (plus extra for flouring)

1 teaspoon of Vanilla Essence

Just simply mix the ingredients together in a bowl, until you get a dough like mixture. Roll it out on a floury surface and cut out your shapes using the cookie cutters of your choice. I managed get about 30 biscuits out of the dough but it will depend on the size of your cutters. Bake them in the oven for about 15 minutes or until golden.
Wait for them to cool down until you can decorate them. Mix together 200g of icing sugar and a little bit of water (the thicker the consistency the better). Separate the mixture into different bowls depending on how many colours you are wanting and put a tiny bit of gel food colouring in. I used 3 different colours, green, yellow and pink. I used the tiniest amount to get eastery pastel colours.
Put them in an icing bag and pipe them onto the biscuits.

Chocolate Easter Nests

It is tradition to make these, there are variations of this depending on your preference so feel free to adapt it but I have chosen to use

Ingredients

300g Cadbury Chocolate
Rice Krispies (I just poured them in until I was happy with the Rice krispie/chocolate ratio)
A bag of Cadburys Mini Eggs

These are so simple to make, if you aren't really into baking but need to make something for the occasion then these are for you. Just simply melt the chocolate either in the microwave or in a bowl over a saucepan containing boiling water. Pour in the rise Krispies and distribute the mixture between the cake cases. Stick some mini eggs on top...and done. I love these so much even when it isn't Easter although I do get sad that mini eggs no longer exist until January. You can try using different chocolate or different cereals too, for example a dark chocolate or shredded wheat. Yummyyyyy!

Bunny Rabbit Cakes

Make a batch of plain cupcakes (or you can just buy some and decorate them.)

To decorate you will need:
125g butter
350g icing sugar
1 teaspoon Vanilla essence
a drop of water
Some Marshmallows (one for each cake)
Pink Sprinkles
25g melted Dark Chocolate

Mix together the butter, icing sugar, vanilla essence and water. Mix these together and spread on the cakes with a knife. Cut a marshmallow in half, coat in pink sprinkles (they will stick to the sticky centre) and put these on the top of the cake to act like cute bunny rabbit ears. Melt the dark chocolate and pop into a piping bag (or like I have a piping syringe.) Pipe on the eyes, nose and mouth. These are so adorable and not too difficult to achieve.

Happy baking and eating!