Makes 18

Beautifully decorated sugar cookies all boxed up with a bow make a wonderful Easter gift.  They would also add a special touch to your Easter tea, or could form part of an Easter egg hunt for the kids. Better yet, you could leave them undecorated and set them aside with some icing for the kids to do as a fun Easter weekend activity. These can be made in advance and stored in an airtight container, taking some pressure off your Easter preparation.

Here’s what goes in

• 2 cups of cake flour
• 3 tablespoons of corn flour
• A pinch of salt
• ½ cup of softened butter
• ½ cup of castor sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

For the icing:

• 1 cup of icing sugar, sifted
• 1 tablespoon of liquid glucose
• 2 tablespoons of water
• A drop or two of food colouring

How to do it

Preheat your oven to 180°C. Cream together the butter and sugar using an electric mixer and then add the eggs one by one. Add the remaining ingredients and continue to blend until well combined. When the dough appears to be crumbly, complete the kneading by hand.

Flatten the cookie dough, cover it in plastic and refrigerate for about an hour. The dough should be completely chilled before you work with it.

Roll out the dough on a floured surface to a thickness of approximately 4mm. Cut out your cookies using a cookie cutter – hopefully you can find a bunny shape for Easter – and set them slightly apart on a lined baking tray. Bake these for around 12 minutes until the cookies are golden brown but not too dark. To prevent further browning on the bottom carefully remove the cookies from the hot baking tray and allow them to cool on a wire rack. When they have reached room temperature, they are ready to ice. For the icing, combine all the ingredients and add only a drop of colouring at a time until the desired hue is achieved.