Easy Spring-themed Gluten-free biscuits

My love of baking is really starting to rub off on Tommy, who loves nothing more than to get involved in whatever I might be rustling up in the kitchen. These Spring-themed biscuits were perfect for him to make - simple, quick, easy and, most importantly of all, delicious! Tommy needed help with the weighing of the ingredients but he was able to knead the biscuit dough, roll it out and cut it into shapes all by himself.

Ingredients:

225g butter, softened

110g caster sugar

275g plain flour (we used gluten-free flour and these turned out great!)

Makes 12 large biscuits

Icing - 250g icing sugar, water, food colouring

Method:

Preheat the oven to 170C/150C fan/gas 3.

Cream the butter until light and fluffy. 

Add the sugar and beat until the mixture is pale and fluffy. 

Sift in the flour and bring the mixture together to form a firm dough. 

Roll out into a work surface to a thickness of 1-1.5cm. 

Cut into desired shapes using cookie cutters (we used rabbits, flowers and butterflies) and place on a baking tray. There is no need to line or grease your baking tray - we just used a non-stick tray and the biscuits slid off easily. 

Bake in the oven for 13-15 minutes, or until they are light golden brown and slightly firm on top.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

To make the icing, sift icing sugar into a bowl and add a tablespoon of water at a time until it gets to the right consistency (spreadable and just about pourable). Add gel food colouring. Once your biscuits are cool, spread the icing over the biscuits, add sprinkles and leave to set. 

Top tips for making these with small children:
1. We used ice-cream cups to store different colours of icing - it saved on the washing up and they were small enough for a child to handle easily.
2. Do the icing with the biscuits on a tray or on baking paper - this will reduce mess and spare your work tops from being coloured with food colouring.
3. Start icing the biscuits by pouring a small amount onto the middle of the biscuit and then allow your child to spread it with a knife. This helps control the amount of icing on each biscuit and also helps reduce mess.
4. Use a new cocktail stick each time you add food colouring to your icing. It will keep your food colourings nice and 'clean' and avoid contamination.