Make Your Own : Lemon Flower Biscuits for Spring/Easter

In my opinion, you'd have to look pretty hard to find something that could beat the taste and smell of freshly baked biscuits, especially when you get a waft of the lemon emanating from them as you peer over to have a look. My kids seem to agree..they struggled to wait until I'd iced our biscuits to tuck into them and ended up devouring almost half of them whilst I was applying the finishing touches.

Perfect for Spring and/or Easter these lemon flower biscuits will have you returning to the biscuit tin for 'just one more.' To create your own you will need the following;

• 3oz butter
• 3½oz caster sugar
• 7oz plain flour
• 1 egg
• 1tsp lemon extract
• pinch of salt
• Fondant, sprinkles and royal icing (made from icing sugar and water) to decorate

Add the butter and caster sugar into a large bowl and cream together until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and 1tsp lemon extract until the mixture is smooth.

Add a pinch of salt and sift in the plain flour then combine to make a dough. If your dough is a little sticky, just mix in some more sifted plain flour. Wrap your dough in cling-film and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Once your dough is chilled, unwrap it and roll it out with a rolling pin. I find rolling the dough (and fondant, if you're using it later on) between two sheets of baking parchment cuts down on the mess and means it doesn't keep sticking to your rolling pin.

Cut out your flower shapes using flower cookie cutters (dip the cutters into some flour to avoid them sticking to your shapes) and place them onto a baking tray covered with baking parchment.

Bake your biscuits in an oven preheated to 180°c (fan 160°c, gas 4) for 12-15 minutes until they are golden brown. Allow them to cool before decorating.

I used fondant icing, sprinkles and piped royal icing to decorate my biscuits but you could use whatever you like, or eat them as they are. To decorate your biscuits in the same way as mine roll out your fondant and, using the same cookie cutters as before, cut out flower shapes. Stick them onto your biscuits with a small amount of water or royal icing.

Add sprinkles on a small circle of fondant, using a dab of water to help them stick, to form the centre of the flowers and add sugar strands to the tops of the 'tulips' (Terror 1 insists they are dinosaur feet..I can see what she means...) Make up some royal icing by combining sifted icing sugar and a small amount of water; you want the icing to be quite stiff else it will run everywhere. Pipe around the edges of your flowers, allow everything to set, then tuck in and enjoy.