Countdown to Easter. Baking, making, cutting and pasting is a good way to prepare for the big hunt. Here are some festive Easter recipes

Find more Easter celebration recipes here.

1-2-3 Easter Chick Cookies

Not only does this Easter recipe make for rows and rows of cute baby chicks, it is also the quintessential recipe to introduce your child to baking biscuits. The 1-2-3 makes it easy to remember as it is 1-sugar (100g sugar), 2-butter (200g butter), 3-flour (300g flour) and the method is the straight-forward ‘Cream the butter and sugar and then add flour kind’.

Makes 24

Ingredients

• 100g castor sugar
• 200g soft butter
• 300g cake flour, sifted
• 5ml vanilla essence
• 1 egg yolk.

For the icing:

• 1 cup icing sugar, sifted
• A little water (about 2 tablespoons)
• One or two drops yellow food colouring
• Yellow 100s and 1000s.

Method

• Preheat the oven to 180 deg C. Place the butter and sugar in a bowl and beat until light and fluffy.
• Add the sifted flour and vanilla essence, then mix well using your hands. Add the egg yolk and mix until the mixture comes together in a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 10 minutes.
• Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough on a floured surface or between two pieces of plastic wrap to 5mm thick.
• Use a chick-shaped cookie-cutter to cut the chicks and place them gently on a baking sheet.
• Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until just golden. Allow to cool on a wire rack before icing.
• Place the icing sugar in a bowl with 2 tablespoons very hot water and mix well, adding more water if necessary to make a smooth, shiny icing. Colour with one or two drops of yellow food colouring.
• Smooth the icing over a chick and dip the iced side into the yellow 100s and 1000s. Leave to set.

Easter Nest Cupcakes

Fill your basket … and eat it too! These little frosted, egg-filled treats make a nice change from hot cross buns for Easter-morning tea.

Makes 12

Ingredients

For the cupcakes:

• 125g soft butter
• 200g cake flour
• 150g castor sugar
• 10ml baking powder
• 2 eggs
• 125ml milk
• 10ml vanilla essence
• Pinch salt.

For the butter icing:

• 60g soft butter
• 120g icing sugar, sifted
• 2.5ml vanilla essence
• A few drops of milk
• 2 packets mini chocolate Easter eggs.
  

Method

• Preheat the oven to 180 deg C.
• Place all the cake ingredients in a mixing bowl and beat well with an electric mixer or by hand with a whisk or wooden spoon until the mixture is smooth and glossy.
• Line a muffin tin with 12 cupcake holders. Then, spoon the cake mixture into the paper cups until it is evenly distributed.
• Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown and when a skewer is inserted into the centre of the cupcake it comes out clean. Allow them to cool before icing.
• For the icing: place the butter and icing sugar in a bowl. Beat until thick and well combined, leaving no lumps of butter or sugar.
• Add the vanilla essence and adjust the consistency by adding a few drops of milk.
• To make the basket: carefully cut off the top of the cupcake and scoop out a little bit of cake to make a nest. Spread the icing all over the cupcake nest and before it sets, decorate it with mini chocolate Easter eggs.
• To make the basket handles, cut strips of coloured card about 15cm long and 1.5cm thick. Using a small sharp knife, cut a slit into each side of the iced cupcake and insert one end of the handle into each slit.

Truffle Eggs

These truffle eggs follow along the same lines as basic fridge cake and are easy to make with this Easter recipe. Employ your little ones to roll the egg shapes, get stuck into the vermicelli and draw faces and paws on to the Easter bunny card cut-outs. Mom and Dad’s tasks are to build up a stash of toilet rolls and cut out the tricky card bits for the bunny.

Give these eggs as Easter gifts either in little gift boxes or perched on top of an Easter Bunny holder. And, include this Easter recipe too.

Makes 10 small eggs

Ingredients

• 1 packet of tennis biscuits
• Half a tin of condensed milk
• 2 tablespoons cocoa
• Chocolate vermicelli.
  

Method

• Place the tennis biscuits in a bowl. Then, using your hands or a wooden spoon, break the biscuits up until there are only crumbs. Add the condensed milk and cocoa and stir well to make a soft, chocolatey mixture. Place 2 tablespoons in your hand and mould into an egg shape. If the mixture is too dry, add a little more condensed milk.
• To coat an egg in vermicelli, either wet your hands and smooth a little water over the surface of the egg and then roll it in the vermicelli. Or dip it in condensed milk, let the excess drip off and then roll it in the vermicelli until it is well-coated. Repeat until you have used up all the remaining chocolate mixture.
• To make the holder: Cut a piece of coloured card to fit the length of a toilet roll and wrap the card around it, fastening it with glue. Then cut out a strip of card for the arms and glue these onto the top backside of the covered toilet roll. Cut out a bunny face from the card, leaving a strip for the ‘neck’ so that the bunny face can peep out over the egg. Draw eyes, nose, mouth and whiskers on to the face cut-out and then paste it on to the top backside of the covered toilet roll. Place the egg on top so that it looks as if the bunny is holding it!

Marie Biscuit Bunnies

An Easter recipe for bunny faces that requires no baking.

Makes 4 bunny faces

Ingredients

• 8 Marie biscuits
• Half a cup of icing sugar
• 1 egg white, whisked lightly.
• A few drops of red food colouring
• Half a cup of desiccated coconut
• Liquorice for whiskers, M&M’s for eyes and pink cachous for noses.
  

Method

• Cut 4 Marie biscuits in half. In a bowl, place 1 teaspoon of egg white, sieve the icing sugar into it and beat it all well. If necessary, add a little more egg white to make smooth, shiny icing.
• Remove 3 tablespoons of icing and place in a clean bowl. Add one drop of red colour and mix well to make a soft pink colour for the bunny ears.
• Using the white icing, cover the Marie biscuits. Sprinkle with coconut to make the fur. Decorate with thin strips of liquorice for the whiskers, brown M&M’s for the eyes and pink cachous for the nose to make the bunny face. Add a dab of icing to make them stick to the coconut topping.
• For the ears, spread a thin line of white icing around the edge of each halved biscuit and sprinkle with coconut. Then take the pink icing and fill in the centre of the ear.

 

Photographs by Amronski

By Nikki Werner and Kirsty Ratcliffe