Animal Cookies

Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C Fan, Gas Mark 4) and line two large baking trays with baking parchment. Place the butter and caster sugar in a bowl and whisk until pale and creamy. Whisk in the egg yolk and Vanilla Extract.

Sieve the flour and Baking Powder on top of the mixture and carefully mix together. Using your hands, bring the mixture together to form a firm dough. Turn the dough on to a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth.

Roll out the dough to a thickness of approx. 1/2cm (1/4inch). Using a plain 6cm (2 1/2inch) diameter round cutter, stamp out approx. 15 cookies, re-rolling the dough as necessary. Arrange the cookies on the prepared baking trays, prick lightly with a fork and chill for 30 minutes.

Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes until firm and very lightly golden round the edges. Leave to cool on the baking trays for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

To decorate, dust the work surface lightly with icing sugar and divide the Fondant Icing into 3 equal portions. Flatten the portions slightly and keeping one portion white, drop a few drops of yellow colour gel and a few drops of pink colour gel on top of the other two portions. Fold the Fondant over the gel to enclose it and carefully knead it into the icing until the colour is evenly mixed through. 

On a lightly dusted work surface, roll out the white, yellow and pink fondant thinly and stamp out 5, 6cm round discs of icing of each colour, re-rolling as necessary. Brush the cookies with honey and place a disc of icing on top of each cookie.

Use the left over fondant to make the animals features and the black fondant icing to eyes and the sheep faces. The features should stick to the fondant but if not use a small amount of honey to stick the features to the cookies.