Cookie-dough snowman

For the cookie dough, melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the syrup and stir until melted. Do not boil. Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl, add the hot syrup mixture to the dry ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon until combined. Cover with cling film and refrigerate to rest, 30 minutes.

For the arms, whisk together the icing sugar and water and use the mixture to glue two 2cm sticks onto a 5cm stick to make three fingers. Repeat with the remaining sticks.

Shape some cookie dough into 3 balls, ranging from small to large, and stick together to build a snowman. Repeat with the remaining cookie dough. Stick the pretzel arms into the middle ball and use the white sugar balls to make buttons.

Roll the fondant icing into a 7cm x 3cm rectangle to form the base of a chef’s hat, then cut a 3cm round with a cookie cutter to make the tip of the hat. Repeat with the remaining icing. Assemble your hat and position on the snowman.

Mix the edible powders with two drops of alcohol each and use the gold to brush the hat and silver to brush the arms. Wrap some liquorish around the snowman’s neck to make a scarf.

Use a wooden skewer to secure the snowman in scoops of the spicy Christmas ice cream sprinkled with the almond crunch.