Rainbow Cookies

Cream the butter: Cream the butter for about a minute.

Add the icing sugar: Add in the icing sugar and continue to mix.

Add the egg yolks: Add in the egg yolks.

Add the extracts: Add in the almond extract and vanilla extract.

Add the flour and knead: Finally, add in the flour and continue to mix. The dough may not initially come together and needs to be kneaded for a minute until it forms a soft dough.

Set aside the plain dough: Once you have a smooth dough, remove three fifths of the dough and set aside.

Divide and colour: Split the remaining two fifths of dough into six equal portions and use the gel colour to tint each portion to the desired colour.

Wrap and chill: Wrap each colour, as well as the remaining uncoloured dough you initially removed, in cling wrap and set in the fridge for an hour.

Measure your cutter: The next step is important. Measure the height of your cookie cutter. Mine was 3cm, so you want to ensure that the stacked layers of dough are slightly more than 3cm.

Roll out each colour: Roll out each colour of dough into a rectangle. This is easiest to do by placing cling wrap on the dough and rolling to prevent sticking. The thickness is based on the height of your cookie cutter. For example, my cookie cutter was 3cm, so I rolled each colour to just over 0.5cm, to get an even distribution of colours, and make sure the cutter fitted on the dough surface area.

Stack and chill: Glue each of the rolled sheets to one another with the egg white. Then gently roll to make sure all layers are grouped together. Place in the fridge to rest for an hour.

Cut out the flowers: Then cut the colourful striped block down the width of the rectangle and flip it on its side to expose all the different layers. Use your cookie cutter to cut out little flowers.

Join the flowers: Glue the flowers together with egg white to form a long chain. Set in the fridge to chill for an hour.

Wrap in the plain dough: Then take the colourful flower and add the remaining uncoloured dough around it to form a cylinder around the coloured flower. Make sure this cylinder you have created is big enough so that the second bigger flower cutter fits on it.

Chill: Place in the fridge to chill for an hour.

Slice and cut: Remove the dough from the fridge and slice into round discs of cookies. Then cut out the bigger flower with your larger flower cutter.

Add the sprinkles: Paint the sides of each flower with some egg white and then add the sprinkles to the sides.

Chill before baking: Place in the fridge for 30 minutes to set, then you are ready to bake. Phew!

Bake: Bake at 180˚ Celsius for 12 minutes. Make sure that your baking tray is lined with baking paper.