Valentine’s Gingerbread Men

Preheat the oven to 180C (160C for gas ovens) / Gas Mark 4 

Heat the buttery baking spread and sugar in a saucepan, stirring until the spread has dissolved. Add the condensed milk and stir together.  

Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ginger into a bowl and pour in the syrupy mixture. Start by working the ingredients together with a spoon, then with clean hands bring the mixture together into a soft dough.  

Separate the dough into thirds and gently knead the food colouring into one third of the dough.  

Roll the gingerbread dough out on a floured surface to the thickness of a pound coin. Cut the gingerbread people out of the ginger dough and place on a baking tray.  

Roll the pink dough out on a floured surface to half the thickness of a pound coin. Make sure to cut the same amount of hearts as gingerbread people out from the pink dough.  

Place a heart in the centre of each gingerbread person and gently fold the arms down towards the heart. Press lightly to adhere to the gingerbread.  

Bake for about 10 minutes until golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the tray for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. 

When fully cooled, decorate with the white icing.