Heat the oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ground ginger and ground cinnamon in a bowl.

Put the butter, sugar, syrup and treacle in a pan and heat gently until melted. Pour into the flour mix and combine to a dough (if it feels too stiff, add a drop of water to help bring it together).

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured worksurface to about ½cm thick. Cut into biscuits using a gingerbread man cutter, then gather up the off cuts, reroll and keep cutting until you have used up all the dough.

Lay onto two baking-paper-lined baking sheets and cook for 12-14 minutes until dark golden brown. Cool completely.

To decorate, put the royal icing in a bowl and mix in enough water (about 1-2 tbsp) until the texture resembles toothpaste.

Use a piping bag with a very thin nozzle to pipe skeleton outlines on the biscuits. Leave to set, then add faces with an edible food colour pen or writing icing, if you like.