With only 17 days to go until Christmas, I’m starting to get a little panicky – especially as a lot of what I’m going to give to my loved ones this year is homemade, and so needs a bit of planning. Planning is not necessarily my strong suit. This gingerbread man kit is a last minute kind of gift that can be easily assembled from things you have at home, but also shows a bit of thought and is pretty cute. Especially if you throw in this little guy…

The original idea came from this month’s issue of Waitrose Kitchen. It’s one of my favourite food magazines  – it focuses on seasonal food, has amazing photography in it, and at £1.20 is a lot cheaper than other food magazines. It’s a winner.

The recipe comes from the 40th edition of the Be-Ro Home Recipes book, which I’ll harp on about at a later date. Buying details (it’s £2.50) and a brief history of the book (the first edition came out in 1923!) can be found here.

Click here for more Christmas gift ideas.

For the mix: 200g self-raising flour, pinch of salt, 2tbsp ground ginger.

To enclose: 65g caster sugar in a food bag (not mixed in with flour etc!)

Other bits and bobs: Washed and dried jam jar or Kilner jar, gingerbread man cutter.
You can either make your own instruction sheet or use this print out (the disk is 8.5cm across, to fit the top of a Kilner jar).

Instructions:
Warm 2tbsp golden syrup with the sugar (enclosed) and 30g margarine & mix well. Add the mixture to this gingerbread mix, along with 2tbsp of milk. Knead lightly, roll out and cut out your gingerbread men! Bake for 10-15 minutes at 160C.