These masks make lovely gifts to pack in boxes with colourful sweets. They are also a fun project to make with children. You will need a mask shaped cookie cutter or you can find mask templates online.

Method:

• Beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl until smooth and light coloured.

• Beat in the vanilla extract and egg.

• Mix the flour and baking powder then add it gradually to the butter mixture. Mix thoroughly until you can no longer see any lumps of white flour. It will turn into dough.

• Split into 16 pieces, flatten into discs, and cover with clingfilm. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 180˚C and line a baking sheet with baking parchment.

• Once the dough is chilled, roll on a floured surface until it is approximately a centimetre thick. Using your mask template, cut out the biscuits in mask shapes big enough to cover a child’s eyes. Re-roll the off cuts - you should get two more masks.

• Carefully transfer the biscuits to the prepared baking sheets. Bake for about 10-12 minutes until golden brown. Watch carefully so they don’t burn. Take out of the oven and cool completely on a wire rack before decorating.

• Melt the chocolates in 3 different bowls either in a bain-marie or microwave in 30 second bursts - stirring in between..

• Using a large spoon, cover the top of the masks with melted chocolate. I used one chocolate at a time, but you may wish to make patterns.

• Before the chocolate sets, decorate with the sprinkles, hundreds and thousands and sweets. Leave to set. You can spray them with gold or silver shimmer or drizzle with a different chocolate if you like.
  
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First published in the JC in March 2022