Gingerbread snowmen

Prepare
1-2 hours
Cook
10 to 30 mins
Serve
Makes 20 snowmen

These gingerbread snowmen are wonderful to make with children, good fun and delicious too. You could use a classic gingerbread man cutter or a Father Christmas cutter instead and have some fun with decoration.

You will need a snowman cutter about 10cm/4in tall.

By Mary Berry

From A Mary Berry Christmas

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Ingredients

For the gingerbread

For the decorations

  • 200g/7oz icing sugar
  • black, green and red fondant icing
  • orange crisp-coated chocolates, such as Smarties
  • edible sliver balls
Recipe tips
How-to videos

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4. Line two large baking sheets with baking paper.

  2. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy using an electric hand whisk. Add the golden syrup and egg and whisk again. Add the remaining gingerbread ingredients and mix until the dough comes together and is smooth.

  3. Lightly flour a work surface. Remove the dough from the bowl and knead until smooth.

  4. Roll the dough out to the thickness of a £1 coin. Stamp out the snowmen using a snowman cutter, you should get about 20 in total.

  5. Carefully place on the baking sheets and then chill for 20 minutes in the fridge.

  6. Bake in the oven for about 15–20 minutes or until the dough is firm in the centre and dark golden. Leave to cool on the baking sheet (they will firm up as they cool).

  7. To decorate, mix the icing sugar with enough water to make a thick spreadable icing. Spoon into a large disposable piping bag and snip the end to make a small piping hole (alternatively use a plastic food bag, or a piping bag fitted with a small plain nozzle). Pipe a border around the edges of the snowmen and let it set a little, then flood the centres to completely cover the whole biscuit.

  8. Make tiny eyes from the black fondant, add an orange chocolate for the nose and sliver balls for the buttons. Make a decorative hat and scarf from the coloured fondant and tiny balls for the mouth to look like coal.

Recipe tips

When cutting out the snowmen, it helps to have a palette knife or metal turner to help move them to the baking tray. Chilling the dough in the fridge before baking helps prevent the gingerbread spreading in the hot oven. It isn't essential but will give a neater shape that's more true to your cutter.

Gingerbread is delicate when it first comes out of the oven so it's important to let it cool on the baking tray before moving it.

When decorating the gingerbread, piping a thin line of icing around the outside (in step 7) prevents the icing running off the sides and creates a neat finish.