For me Easter is a great excuse for making cute baked goods and these little bunny and chick biscuits are not only tasty but super simple to make. If you don’t want to make a buttercream filling you can always just use jam or lemon curd to sandwich the biscuits together instead.

Similarly you could use any shape of cutter to stamp out a little peephole through to the filling, depending on the occasion. Or you could do away with the hole entirely and just make sandwich biscuits – they’re totally versatile so you can go with whatever you fancy!

They make a lovely gift if you’re going round as a guest for Easter lunch, and are perfect served with a cup of tea in your comfiest seat.

x

Makes: 10-12 biscuits

Total time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

For the shortbreads:

• 50g + 1 tbsp caster sugar
• 100g hard vegan margarine (I used stork)
• 150g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 tsp vanilla powder or essence

For the filling:

• 25g vegan butter
• 75g icing sugar
• few drops lemon + strawberry flavouring
• few drops yellow + pink food colouring (optional)

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 180°C/160°C fan and line 2 baking sheets with greaseproof paper.
2. Add all the shortbread ingredients to the container of a food processor and pulse to combine. Keep processing until the mixture starts to come together into a ball.
3. Remove the dough and place onto a floured work surface, kneading gently a few times. Roll out the dough, no thicker than  a £1 coin, making sure to dust well with flour underneath to prevent it from sticking.
4. Using a small round cutter, cut out the biscuits and gently place onto the prepared baking trays. Gather up the remaining dough and roll out again, continuing to cut biscuits until there is only a small amount of dough remaining (I like to bake the last off-cuts to nibble as a little chef’s snack!)
5. Taking a smaller cutter, cut a little hole in the middle of half of the biscuits on the trays to make the tops (the remainder will be the bottom biscuits). I used mini bunny and chick cutters but you could use a star or flower or anything else you have. You could also use the end of a straw to take a few little circles of dough out, or use a bottle top to cut a hole – don’t worry if you don’t have a mini cutter – anything goes!
6. Place the trays into the pre-heated oven for 8-10 minutes. They should only just be beginning to turn lightest golden brown on the edges. For the sugar coating sprinkle over a tbsp or so of caster sugar on the biscuits when they are hot from the oven. Leave on the baking trays for a few minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack. Don’t worry if they seem a little soft when they first come out of the oven – they will firm up as they cool.
7. While they are cooling you can get your fillings ready. Cream together the butter and icing sugar to make a buttercream. Divide this mixture into two, placing half into another bowl and add the strawberry and pink colouring to one and the lemon and yellow into the other. Mix both well to combine.
8. To construct your biscuits simply spoon or pipe about a teaspoon of buttercream on to one of the bottom biscuits and then top with a cut-out biscuit, gently pressing down so that the buttercream peeks through the hole a little and the top biscuit stays firmly in place.
9. Best eaten with a hot cup of tea or coffee sat in your most comfy chair. Any biscuits not eaten immediately can be stored in an airtight container and should keep for 4-5 days.

Notes:

• Although a food processor makes quick work of this recipe and results in a crumblier biscuit if you don’t have one you can still make them. Simply cream together the margarine and sugar, mix in the vanilla and then add the flour and salt, bring together to make your dough and continue with the remaining instructions.
• The dough can be made ahead of time and be kept in fridge wrapped in cling film until you are ready to bake the biscuits.