Ornate Festive Edible Egg

Preheat the oven to 180° (160° fan) | 350F | gas 4.

Separate the eggs. Beat the egg whites with half of the sugar and a pinch of salt until they form stiff peaks.

Beat the egg yolks with the water and the rest of the sugar until very foamy. Sieve the flour and baking powder over the egg yolk mixture, add the beaten egg whites and fold in all together.

Line a baking tray with baking parchment and spread the mixture evenly on the tray. Bake in the preheated oven for 10-12 minutes. Test to see if it is done by inserting a cocktail stick; it will come out clean when the cake is done.

Take the sponge out of the oven and cool on a cake rack. Assemble round cutters ranging from 5 to 11 cm in diameter, or make several templates ranging in size from 5 to 11 cm.

Now cut out circles as follows: one x 5 cm, one x 6 cm, one x 7 cm, one x 8 cm, two x 9 cm, two to three x 10 cm and two to three x 11 cm. Spread all the circles (apart from the 5 cm one) with jam.

Place a 9 cm circle on a platter, put a 10 cm circle centrally on top, then add the 11 cm circles. Then add the other 10 cm circle/s followed by the rest of the circles in decreasing size to make an egg shape.

Make up the icing mix with water to a pipeable consistency according to the package instructions. Coat the egg thickly on all sides with icing.

Colour the remaining icing green and purple. Put into small piping bags and decorate the surface of the egg.