#80 Gingerbread man

This week is such an emotional draining and tiring week for the family because Jr starts going to a childcare center. We have to wake much earlier to get ready for school and when he reached school, he will bawl his lungs out because he doesn't want dad to leave. Such a struggle both for him and for us. Yesterday was the fourth day and we are starting to see signs of him adapting and his teachers also feedbacked that there were less crying and more participation in class. Today, his school is having a Christmas celebration for the kids and because my boy is the new kid on the block, I wanna do something to impress his teachers and classmates! LOL

I eventually decided to bake Gingerbread man for his school party. Truth is, I bake them every year for the family but this year, I used a new recipe and boy, are they good! This is the book where I got the recipe..

It was originally retailed at S$44.95 but I bought it at a steal at S$15.90 during the Singapore BookFest. All the cakes look so yummilicious that I wanna fly to their bakery in London!

Gingerbread Men 
makes about 24

Ingredients
400g plain flour
3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
180g unsalted butter (room temperature)
125g soft dark brown sugar
1 egg
125g black treacle

Bought at Sun Lik Trading at Seah Street. 

Method

1. Sift together flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and salt in a large bowl and set aside.
2. Cream butter and sugar in an electric mixer on low speed till light and fluffy.
3. Turn to medium speed, and add in the egg and black treacle. 
4. Turn the mixer back to slow speed and slowly add the flour mixture a few tablespoonful at a time, stopping often to scape down the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula.
5. Once an even dough is formed, take it out of the mixer, divide into 3 portions, wrap each portion with cling wrap and leave them to rest overnight in the fridge.
6. When you are ready to bake, preheat oven to 170C.
7. Take the dough out of the fridge and leave it to soften for 10 minutes. 
8. Lightly dust work surface with flour and roll out the dough to about 4mm thick. 
9. Cut out shapes with cookie cutters.
10. Arrange cookies on baking trays (if not non-stick, spread a thin layer of butter or line with grease proof paper) and bake for about 10-15 minutes.
11. Leave the cookies to cool on the tray for a while before transferring to wire cooling rack to cool completely.

I have cutters of various sizes. The biggest gingerbread man cutter is about 20cm height and the mini ones, bought at Phoon Huat, is about 3cm height. They are so cute! 

Royal Icing

Ingredients

1 egg white

1/2 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

310g icing sugar (sifted)

food colouring

Method

1. Beat egg white and lemon juice together in an electric mixer.
2. Gradually add in icing sugar, mixing well after each addition.
3. Whisk until you get stiff peaks.
4. Stir in drops of food colouring, if using, and decorate the cookies with piping bag and tip.

These mini gingerbread man were for Jr to bring to his school's Christmas party. Don't they look like gingerbread man refugees? LOL