gingerbread men (and women)

School holidays. I don't even have kids at school and I am over it. I just went up to Woolworths to get some bits and pieces and I saw carloads of hyperactive tweens dragging along distraught exhausted mothers. Props to you mums-with-school-age-kids, here, make these - the perfect distraction on this unseasonably cold wet morning, day, week, month. 

Ingredients  

(Makes 20) 

• 
  
• Melted butter, to grease
• 125g butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup, firmly packed, brown sugar
• 1/2 cup golden syrup
• 1 egg, separated
• 2 1/2 cups plain flour
• 1 tbs ground ginger
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• Plain flour, to dust

Decorations 

• 
  
• 150g (1 cup) pure icing sugar, sifted
• food colouring 
• Smarties, coconut, whatever you have in the cupboard - to decorate 
• 
  
• Method 
• 
  
• 1/ Preheat oven to 180°C. Brush 2 baking trays with melted butter to lightly grease
• 
  
• 2/ Use an electric beater to beat the butter and sugar in a bowl until pale and creamy. Add the golden syrup and egg yolk and beat until combined. Stir in the flour, ginger, mixed spice and bicarbonate of soda. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. Press dough into a disc. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes to rest

• 3/ Place the dough between 2 sheets of baking paper and roll out until about 4mm thick. Use a 9cm gingerbread man cutter to cut out shapes. Place on trays about 3cm apart. Repeat with any excess dough
• 
  

4/ Bake in oven for 10 minutes or until brown. Remove from oven. Transfer to a rack to cool

5/ Once cool, mix up your icing sugar and prepare the decorations, then let the kids go wild creating their little master pieces