Cream the butter and sugar together until light
Add the syrup and mix in
https://cookpad.com/us/recipes/334096-vickys-homemade-golden-syrup-like-tate-lyles-gf-df-ef-sf-nf
Mix the flour, baking powder and spices together and add to the mixture. Form a dough adding a touch more syrup if required to bring it together
Wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate for half an hour
Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper/baking parchment
Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 5/ 190C. Flour your surface then roll out your dough so it's 1cm thick and cut out your men with a gingerbread men shaped cutter or whatever shape you want to use
You can get neat stamps you press on instead of decorating with icing like those pictured here
I have also used an upsides down snowman cutter for a skull
Place on baking tray and bake for 10 - 12 minutes - they should be firm but not browned
Rest on tray a further 10 minutes then remove and set on a wire rack to continue cooling
Decorate with piped icing. Let your imagination guide you. You could stick sweets to the icing for eyes or buttons
For Halloween make some headless, armless or legless by cutting off a leg or whatever and decorate with red icing near the 'injury', scary faces and pipe a skeleton out of icing onto the bodies. My son loves this! We call them 'Injure-bread Men' lol
To make Xmas Stained Glass Cookies, follow the recipe but cut circles out of your main cookie shapes
Bash some boiled sweets or lollipops with a rolling pin to break them into smaller pieces and spoon into the holes in your cookies
Poke a hole near the top of each cookie so when its baked you can thread a ribbon through and hang on your xmas tree or in front of your window
