Spooky Halloween cookies

Sift the plain flour and baking powder into a mixing bowl with the sugar. Add the butter and rub together with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Make a hollow in the centre and pour in the beaten egg, golden syrup and vanilla extract. Mix together into a dough.

Halve the dough. To one half add a few drops black colouring and knead until well distributed. This will give you a murky, sinister look to your dough – ideal for gravestone and bat cookies.

To the other half of dough, add a few drops of yellow and a few drops red and knead until a light orange colour has been achieved. This colour is ideal for pumpkin lantern cookies.

Place the dough in a separate plastic bags and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 170C/fan 150C/gas 3. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to 5mm thick and, using cutters, stamp out the cookies. If you are using a template, cut around the template with a knife for each cookie. If you’re going to hang your cookies, make a small hole in the top of each hole using a skewer before cooking.

Lightly knead and re-roll the trimmings together again to use up all the dough. Place the biscuits on baking sheets.

Bake biscuits for 12-15 minutes until lightly coloured and firm but not crisp. Leave on the tray for two minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

To decorate: break off a quarter of the ready to roll icing and add a few drops of food colour to it. Knead the colour through the icing until you get your desired shade (use black for gravestones and bats and witches; red and yellow for lanterns and pumpkins).

. Cut the icing slightly smaller than the cookie. Dot a few spots of writing icing onto the cookie and cover with the coloured rolled icing. Decorate using sprinkles and writing icing.

Recipe provided by Silver Spoon