Preparation

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  1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees or 160 degrees fan oven. Line two baking sheets with greaseproof paper.
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  2. Sieve the flour into a large bowl, add the sugar, cinnamon and ginger and mix together.
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  3. Cut the margarine into small pieces and drop it into the bowl. Rub it into the flour mixture lightly with your fingertips until it looks like breadcrumbs and there are no big lumps of margarine left.
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  4. Make a well in the centre of the mixture. Beat the egg and pour it into the well, a little at a time, using a knife to mix it in until it all begins to come together. [You may need to add a small splash of milk if the egg isn’t enough.] Then use your hands to form it into a dough.
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  5. Roll out the dough fairly thinly on a lightly floured surface. Dip the cutters into flour then cut out the biscuits and place them on the baking trays, not too close together. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until the edges are turning golden brown.
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  6. Allow to cool for a few moments after taking them out of the oven, then carefully lift them onto a cooling rack.
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  7. Decorate the snowflakes by placing a blob of white icing on each point and in the centre, then pressing a sugar snowflake onto each blob.
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  8. Decorate the trees by drawing a zigzag line from the top to the bottom with the red icing, then attaching white chocolate stars at intervals using the icing.
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  9. Store in an airtight container.
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  Notes:
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  - I used self raising flour so these biscuits rise a little, and are quite soft and crumbly in texture. You can use plain flour if you prefer a flatter, harder biscuit.
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  - If you don’t have tubes of icing, you can easily make it from icing sugar and a few drops of water or lemon juice, and food colouring if you want coloured icing.