Ingredients

Step by step

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C, fan 160°C, gas 4. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper.
2. Blend the flour, butter, sugar and vanilla to crumbs in a food processor, add the egg yolks and 2 teaspoons of egg white and pulse until the mixture starts to clump together. Add a little more egg white if needed.
3. Tip onto a work surface and bring together with your hands. Dust the work surface lightly with flour and roll out the dough to the thickness of a pound coin. Take a dinner plate (about 28cm diameter) and cut around it to make a large disc, taking away the trimmings from the outside. Transfer to one of the baking trays, then place an 18cm side plate (or cake tin base) in the centre of the disc and cut around it, lifting out the central piece to leave a biscuit ring.
4. Bring all the trimmings together and re-roll, then cut out biscuits using Easter-themed cutters (ours were each around 7cm high), and flower cutters. Arrange the biscuits on the second tray, leaving a little room between them and, if necessary, place some in and around the ring on the first tray.
5. Bake for 14-15 minutes until the biscuits are pale golden at the edges. Leave to cool completely on the trays.
6. Sift the royal icing sugar into a mixing bowl, add 80ml water and beat to make a stiff, pipeable icing. Place about a third of the icing into a bowl (leave this white) and cover. Add enough water to the remainder to make a very thick pouring consistency – it should become flat after a few seconds when you pour it from the spoon back into the bowl. Divide between 3 small bowls and tint them pastel pink, blue and yellow, using a few drops of food colouring. Cover the bowls when not in use.
7. Snip the end off a piping bag and add a writing nozzle. Fill with half the white icing, then pipe a thin line around each of the Easter biscuits and a wavy line around the inner and outer edges of the garland (still on the baking tray). Keep the bag of icing in an airtight container when not using to prevent it drying out.
8. Using a teaspoon, pour a little coloured icing into each of the Easter biscuits to flood between the edging lines. Use a cocktail stick to ease it to the edges, and to pop any air bubbles.
9. Heat the oven to its lowest setting (about 60°C) and return the biscuits to the oven to dry out for 15 minutes. Allow to cool completely, then add details with white piping icing and leave to set.
10. Moving on to the garland, thin out the remaining white icing with water in the same way as before and use to flood in between the wavy lines.
11. While this icing is still wet, arrange the Easter biscuits on the ring. Leave to dry and set, then add the ribbon.