Spice Biscuit Christmas Countdown

Heat the oven to 220°C (200°C in a fan oven), 425°F, gas 7 and line two baking trays (approx. 35x40 cm) with grease-proof paper.

Put the eggs, sugar and vanilla sugar in a bowl and beat until very light and airy. Add the almonds, candied orange and lemon peel, the cinnamon, a pinch each of cloves, allspice and cardamom, and the grated lemon zest.

Mix the flour with the baking powder and sieve over the mixture. Knead the mixture to a smooth dough.

Cut the dough in half and roll out finger-thick on the two baking trays. Bake in the oven for around 20 minutes, then remove from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack.

Cut out 24 small doors and shapes such as moons, stars, Christmas trees etc. out of one of the sheets of gingerbread.

Mix the icing sugar and the lemon juice together well. Divide the icing between two small bowls and colour one part pink with a few dashes of food colouring. Spoon the icing into two freezer bags and cut off a tiny corner of each one. Write the numbers 1-24 on the doors. Decorate the remaining shapes with the icing and stick on the sweets.

Cut a further 24 doors out of the second sheet of gingerbread, slightly smaller than the first set of doors. Stick 24 pictures under the cut-out doors. Use the remaining icing to stick the numbered Advent calendar doors over the holes (numbers facing upwards). Again using the icing, attach the stars, moons and Christmas trees to the frame and stick the sugar stars and pearls around the edge.