• Blend the butter and all the spices in a large bowl or you can do this in a stand mixer, using the paddle attached.
• Heat the sugar, molasses, golden syrup and water until the sugar has dissolved.  Leave to cool for 10-15 minutes and then pour over the butter mixture and stir. Cool to room temperature.
• Blend the flour and bicarbonate and then mix into the butter and sugar mixture. The mixture is fairly loose but it's now going to be refrigerated for roughly 8 hours, divide into 4 and wrap in clingfilm. This dough can be kept in the fridge for 2 weeks or frozen for up to a 3 months.
• Preheat the oven to 190°C (fan). Take only a small amount of the dough from the fridge and lightly flour your surface and roll out the dough 2mm thick. Stamp out your shapes with your chosen cookie cutters. With the help of a thin bladed knife, transfer carefully to the lined baking trays. Bake the biscuits for 5-6 minutes. They should start to feel hard around the edges as they cool and eventually become really crisp – they need to have a nice ‘snap’. Store in an airtight container for several weeks. *If you are making Christmas decorations remember to make a hole for the ribbon or string to go through. Do this as soon as they come out of the oven, I use the tip of a very small piping nozzle.

To Decorate

• Mix royal icing with a little water to a pipe-able consistency, or make your own, see notes below.