Mini Buns With Coloured Icing

The Buns

1. Preheat the oven to 190c.
2. Cream the butter, add the sugar and beat until light.
3. Add the beaten eggs gradually, then the vanilla and lastly fold in the flour and baking powder, bring together. (or put all the ingredients into a food processor and whiz up until it comes together!!)
4. Put into mini bun cases sitting in mini bun trays and cook for 7-10 minutes.
5. Cool on a wire rack, before you ice them.

Icing and Coloured Sugar

1. Sieve 100g icing sugar into a bowl and add about 2 tsp of boiling water and a DROP (or more if you want good bright gaudy icing!) of your chosen food colouring.
2. Beat with a wooden spoon and add another drop of water if it is too stiff to spread over the top of a bun, add more food colouring if you want a deeper colour!
3. If you have made it too wet, just add more icing sugar.
4. This will make enough to ice about 20-30 mini buns.
5. I like to make a few different colours.
6. Then when the icing is made, take a small palette knife, or a table knife and dip it into a cup of boiling water. This will make it easier to spread the icing and it will give it a nice glossy shine.
7. Then if you want to put a smartie, or chocolate button or whatever, put it on now, before the icing sets.
8. To make the couloured sugar, put 100g of icing sugar and 1 or 2 drops of your chosen colouring into a sieve, and sieve into a bowl - then sieve it all again.
9. Keep doing this (maybe another 2 times) until the food colouring has tinted the sugar. Then spread a very thin layer of icing and dip the top of the bun into the coloured sugar.Cute !