Festive Baby Bird Biscuits

For the biscuits: heat the oven to 180°C (160° fan) 350°F gas 4. Line 2 baking trays with non-stick baking paper.

Put the butter, golden syrup and sugar into a pan over a low heat, stirring, until melted. Remove from the heat.

Sift the flour, ground ginger and bicarbonate of soda into the pan and stir into the syrup mixture until it forms a soft smooth dough. Add the stem ginger and chocolate chips.

Roll teaspoonfuls of the dough into balls and place on the baking tray, elongating them to form egg shapes, about 5cm|2" apart.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until the tops are starting to crack and brown. Cool on the baking trays for 5 minutes, then place on a wire rack to cool completely.

For the chicks: roll out the yellow sugarpaste on a surface lightly dusted with icing sugar and cut out chicken shapes using a cookie cutter or card stencil. Attach to the biscuits with a little apricot jam.

Roll out the orange sugarpaste as before and cut out the legs, feet and noses. Attach to the chicks with a dab of jam.