Gingerbread men cupcakes

Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C, gas mark 4) and line a muffin tin with 12 cupcake cases.

Cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, then add the eggs one by one mixing after each one.

Sift together the flour and ground ginger and carefully fold into the mixture.

Spoon the mixture into the paper cases until they are approx. ½ full. Then bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes until golden brown and a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool.

To make the buttercream mix together the butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy, then fill a piping bag and pipe swirls of buttercream onto the top of each cooled cake.

Mix together some white and brown sugar paste icing until you get a gingerbread colour, then roll this out onto a surface lightly dusted with icing sugar until it is about 3-4mm thick.

Using a gingerbread man cutter cut out the shapes and leave to one side for about 20 minutes to firm up. You could decorate each gingerbread man with a red bow tie and some buttons using red sugar paste icing.

Carefully place the gingerbread men onto the top of each cupcake and serve