Almond Christmas tree biscuits

Cream the butter and sugar until pale, soft and creamy. Beat the egg and water with the vanilla extract and mix with the butter and sugar.

Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt and with a wooden spoon, work into the butter until you have a soft dough.

Wrap the dough in cling film and chill for 30 minutes. Pre-heat the oven to 180˚C/gas mark4 Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to about 5mm thick then cut out your tree shapes and place onto a lightly greased baking tray, re-roll the dough to cut out further shapes.

Press the flaked almonds into the dough in rows but dont worry about them being too uniform.

Bake for 10 mins until pale golden in colour and cool for one min before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Decorate with icing and hundreds and thousands, silver balls and jellied oranges and lemons.