Pieday Friday ~ My favourite Easter recipes

Any excuse to make a sweet treat eh? And Easter is the perfect time to make something sweet for the family over this 4-day weekend. Here are my favourite Easter recipes that I’ll  be sharing with my family over the bank holiday and I hope you’ll have a go at making some treats for yourself too!

Decorated sugar biscuits Ingredients: 125g butter, 125g caster sugar, 1 medium egg, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 250g plain flour

Beat the sugar and butter together until light and creamy then add the egg and vanilla extract and mix. Sift half the plain flour into the bowl, mix and then add the rest of the flour and mix into a soft dough. Knead the dough until smooth and wrap in cling film before chilling in the fridge for at least half an hour. When you are ready to make your biscuits, preheat your oven to 180 °C /350 °F and roll out the dough on a floured surface. Use cookie cutters to cut out any shapes you like and move onto a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper or a baking liner. Bake Cook for approx 10-15 minutes until light golden brown – really keep an eye on them towards to end to prevent the edges of the cookies from getting singed! This is one of my favourite recipes for cute decorated biscuits – simply ice with a icing sugar  mixed with a drop of lemon juice and let the kids go crazy decorating them with chocolate sprinkles and hundreds-and-thousands!

Chocolate fudge Easter cake Ingredients: 175g Self-raising flour, 200g Caster sugar, 100g Soft brown sugar, 100g Butter or Margarine, 3 Eggs, 4tbsp Milk, 6 tbsp Boiling water, 50g Cocoa powder

Fudge Topping Ingredients: 150g Chocolate (supermarket cheap stuff is fine, or if you can bear it, melt down your easter eggs!), 250g Softened butter or margarine, 275g Icing sugar, 1 tbsp Vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4 and grease two 20cm/8in sandwich tins. Put the cocoa powder and boiling water into a large bowl and mix well to make a paste. Add all the other ingredients and beat again until combined. Divide the cake mixture between the prepared tins. Bake for about 25-30 minutes, or until well risen and shrinking away from the sides of the tin.

Topping: Melt your chocolate and whisk in the vanilla extract, icing sugar and butter. Work quickly as the topping mixture will start to set as it cools – sandwich some of the fudge mixture between the two cakes then spread the rest over the top and down the sides. Pile on mini eggs and chocolate coins to decorate, then fight over who gets to try the first slice! 😉