Gingerbread men are not just for Christmas. From your favourite German fairytale book, to your reliable morning sickness cure, you can always count on this deliciously spicy cookie to brighten up your day.

History traces gingerbread men back to Queen Elizabeth I, who had her chefs mold the pastry into the shapes of her favorite courtiers and liked to give VIP guests ginger biscuits that were edible caricatures.

A lot of the craft supplies I've used for this tutorial are from the Craft Company which I will link below.

The Craft Company is one of the UK's leading online suppliers of cake decorating and sugarcraft supplies.

It is honestly a treasure trove for everything imaginable that you could need for getting busy and crafty in the kitchen.

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Equipment You Will Need

•     Large bowl
•     Baking Tray
•     Sieve
•     Saucepan
•     Wooden Spoon
•     Rolling Pin
•     Ginger Bread Man Cookie Cutter
•     Small Heart Cookie Cutter
•     Sugarflair 'Red Christmas' Food Colouring Pastes
•     Sugarflair Sugar Art Pens
  

Ingredients for the Gingerbread Men

•     150g Dairy-Free Butter
•     100g Light Brown Soft Unrefined Cane Sugar
•     100g Organic Black Treacle
•     100g Organic Golden Syrup
•     2tsp Ground Cinnamon
•     3tsp Gound Ginger
•     2tsp Baking Powder
•     460g Plain Flour
  

Method

1. Over low heat, melt and mix the dairy-free butter, light brown sugar, treacle, and syrup until the light brown sugar has dissolved then set aside and leave to cool for 15 minutes.

2. Take your mixing bowl and sift in the plain flour, the ground cinnamon, the ground ginger, the baking powder and mix them together. In the middle of the mixing bowl pour in your cooled sugar mixture and knead together using your hands until you have a formed ball of gingerbread dough. Pop your dough ball into the fridge for a couple of hours to firm.

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3. Lightly flour your work surface. Cut 1/3 of your dough away and set aside, this is going to be for your red hearts. Roll out the remaining 2/3 of your dough and use your gingerbread man cutter to cut out your shapes.

4. Place your gingerbread men cutouts along your baking trays and shape their arms so they stick out.

5. Take the 1/3 of the dough that you set aside and pop it into the mixing bowl with 1/2 teaspoon of the Sugarflair 'Red Christmas' Food Colouring Paste and mix in well using your wooden spoon. Once your dough is your desired shade of red - roll this out (I suggest doing it on a chopping board so you don't stain your work surfaces and wash your hands well immediately after handling). 

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6. Use your heart cutter to cut out heart shapes and place them in between the arms of your gingerbread men. I pressed them together slightly to keep them in place.

7. Preheat your oven to 160 and pop them in for 8 minutes until your gingerbread men start to brown. Please monitor your gingerbread as each oven temperature is different so they may need less time or more time depending on your oven. Once baked allow them to cool for 10 minutes.

8. Once cooled you can use your Sugarflair Sugar Art Pens to decorate. I added little faces and outlined the hearts for more definition. If you were designing for a special someone, it would be fun to pop their initials in the heart!

9. If you have any dough remaining, you can use it for additional cookies. I had a mix of plain dough and red dough remaining, so I joined them together and rolled them out which gave a cool pattern.

These designs can be adapted for so many occasions. Instead of colouring the heart red, you could use the Sugarflair Food Colouring Paste in 'Holly Green' and use a Christmas Tree cutter so it looks like they're holding little trees which would be adorable at Christmas time. Or for Easter, you could bake the gingerbread men with their arms out, and then once cooled add in a mini chocolate egg or Carrot Cake Decorations by Baked with Love which you could secure with a blob of icing sugar.

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Some of the items used in this post were kindly gifted to me from the Craft Company, but I have long been a supporter (and indeed an avid buyer) of there great products. Obviously - All the items I used for this tutorial were fantastic, and I highly recommend them.