Italian Easter Biscuits

Preheat the oven to 180 C / Gas mark 4. Grease baking trays.

In a large bowl, cream together 125g butter and caster sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in 1 teaspoon vanilla and 1 teaspoon almond extract, 60ml milk and oil. Combine the flour and baking powder, stir into the wet mixture. Roll dough into 2.5cm balls. On a lightly floured surface, roll the balls out into ropes about 12cm long. Tie into loose knots and place biscuits 2.5cm apart onto the prepared baking trays.

Bake for 5 minutes on the bottom shelf and 5 minutes on the top shelf of the preheated oven, until the bottoms of the biscuits are golden brown. When biscuits are cool, dip them into the icing.

To make the icing, cream together the icing sugar, 125g butter and 1 teaspoon vanilla and 1 teaspoon almond extracts. Beat in 3 tablespoons milk, one tablespoon at a time, then stir in the food colouring if desired.