By Nicole Abou-abdallah, Epigram Food Online Editor

There's no better way to get into the festive season than by making and decorating your own gingerbread men! Let your imagination run wild when decorating these little people.

What you will need:

For the gingerbreads:

• 200g butter (melted in microwave)
• 350g plain flour
• 2 teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda
• 3 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 200g brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 6 tablespoons golden syrup
• Gingerbread shape cutters (or you can do this free-hand)

For the icing:

• 3 cups icing sugar
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 2 egg whites
• red food colouring
• green food colouring
• Piping bags
• Electric whisk

Method:

For the gingerbreads:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius
2. Combine the dry ingredients of the gingerbreads into a large bowl using a wooden spoon
3. Mix in the eggs, butter and golden syrup. Use your hands to combine until a doughy consistency.
4. Roll segments of the mixture onto a clean surface using a rolling pin to roughly 0.5cm thick.
5. Cut into shapes using the ginger bread cutters, or free-hand, and place into a greaseproof tray
6. Place into oven for 10-12 minutes until lightly golden brown
7. Allow to cool on some parchment paper on the side

For the decorating:

1. Using an electric whisk, beat together the two egg whites and the lemon juice until white and frothy
2. Slowly, add the icing sugar until mixture is thick with lots of peaks
3. Separate the mixture into three bowl, adding a splash of red food colouring to one bowl, and green to another bowl, leaving the final bowl as a white icing
4. Place the icing into 3 piping bags, snipping a very small hole into the end of each
5. Decorate! (once the gingerbreads have cooled)

Image: Epigram Food/Nicole Abou-abdallah

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Featured image: Epigram Food/Nicole Abou-abdallah