Sweet & Spooky Gingerbread Skulls

Happy Hallowe’en everyone!

I re-use this gingerbread recipe every couple of weeks. It’s delicious, and it is so easy to work with. Just a dream come true in biscuit form. So I am using it here with just a few flavour tweaks.

I wasn't really going for "spooky"

You don’t have to use skull cutters. If you are more of a free-hand person, then you could cut out circles and then ice those without the “guidelines.” And even if you use cutters which come with cut out indents, you aren’t forced to copy those shapes, you can always get creative and add your own patterns over the top.

I have a slight obsession with holiday baking. And there is something hugely therapeutic about icing buns in an intricate and ridiculously detailed manner. This is how I spend my Sunday evenings and it’s so much fun. Edible hobbies are the best kind.

Makes about 18 skull biscuits

Ingredients for the skulls

• 350g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp nutmeg
• ½ tsp ground cloves
• 100g butter, chilled anddiced
• Zest of 1 orange
• 100g caster sugar
• 50g light muscovado sugar
• 1 egg
• 60ml golden syrup

Ingredients for the icing

• 1 egg white
• 200g icing sugar
• Food colouring of your choice

Method

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees.

Mix together the flour, baking powder and spices in a large bowl, then add in the butter and rub in with your fingers until you get a fine breadcrumb texture.

Stir through the sugar and zest.

Finally, mix in the egg and syrup, bringing it all together at the end with your hands.

You should have a fairly stiff biscuit dough at this stage.

Take a third of the dough and roll it out on a floured surface. You might need to roll it a few times to get the dough smooth and non-crumbly.

Cut out skulls with one side of the cutter, and then press the patterned side into the dough to make the indents.

Place on a lined baking tray, keeping them a little bit apart.

Bake for approx. 10mins.

Let cool for a few minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.

When all the biscuits are baked, you can get a start on the piped icing.

Place an egg white in a bowl, and add in the icing sugar. Mix together with a handheld mixer for about 3-4 minutes until stiffer

Divide into three or four different bowls and add a little food colouring. I use gel food colouring as it's more firm, and I usually end up with quite pastel tones because I’m a bit of a wuss when it comes to adding lots of colour. Also, remember, the more you add, the runnier your icing and you'll need to add more icing sugar.

Snip the very end off a piping bag, leaving just a tiny hole. Decant the coloured icing into one each and then get creative with your icing!

Allow to set for 30-60 minutes.