To make 6-8 hedgehogs, you will need:

• 270g white bread flour (and extra in case the mixture gets gloopy!)
• 1/2 level tsp ground mixed spice
• Pinch of salt
• 25g butter, nice and cold
• 7g pack Easy Bake yeast
• 65g caster sugar
• 1 medium egg, lightly beaten
• 125ml semi-skimmed milk
• Dried fruit for the eyes and nose

Then do this:

• Lightly grease a baking tray and heat the oven to 220C/200C Fan/Gas 7
• Sift together the flour, spices and salt

• Rub in the butter using your fingers (wash your hands with cold water first, it makes it easier to make a breadcrumb consistency)
• Stir in the yeast and 55g of the sugar

• Add the egg and milk to the flour and mix with your hands (this is the sticky part – children love it!)

• Generously dust the worktop and knead the dough for 10 minutes or until it stretches and you can see light through it

• Cut into 6-8 even-size balls and shape into hedgehogs, then use scissors to snip some spikes

• Use the dried fruit to make eyes and a nose; press them in well

• Pop onto a radiator under a piece of cling film, they should grow by about half their size again
• Bake for 10-12 minutes until nice and golden

• Melt the remaining sugar with a splash of milk and brush over to make your hedgehogs shiny
• Wait for them to cool, and then eat!

Handy Hedgehog Facts:

• They love munching on snails, slugs, beetles and worms
• They’re called hedgehogs because they spend their evenings foraging around tree roots in search of juicy bugs and make little grunting noises in the process.
• They’re nocturnal, choosing to snooze for the majority of the day
• Hedgehogs have very poor eyesight and hunt using their super-powered senses of hearing and smell
• They have a soft, furry tummy, which they protect when they roll themselves into a ball, by surrounding themselves with their spikes
• And talking of spikes, they have over 5000! Each one drops out after a year, and a new one grows in it’s place.
• If you’re lucky enough to get close to a hedgehog, you’ll probably see one of the 500 fleas that regularly hitch a ride
• A Mother hedgehog can have up to eleven babies in one litter but after just a month, they will all go their separate ways
• When the babies are born, their spikes are soft
• Don’t ever feed a spiky little friend with bread and milk, it can make them so poorly, they die! Instead, give them a little cat or dog food (but no fishy flavours please!)