Halloween Gingerbread Lantern

Following on from watching the great British Bake off a few weeks ago where they where making amazing Gingerbread structures, I decided to have a go at my own.  I wish I could say it was as easy as it looked, but at least I've learned something new and had fun doing it.  

I put together a template of scary sillouhettes to make up a Gingerbread Lantern. You can find the recipe and templates at the bottom of this post.    

I cut out each template using a PME Craft Knife and baked until golden.  Some of the detail in these templates is fine and hard to cut out.  I should have gone back over it once the gingerbread was cooked but still hot out of the oven and could have made the details sharper.  But I left it too long and the gingerbread was to hard to cut once cooled.

 My lantern is glued together with Royal Icing tinted Orange and Black and I used edible rice paper to line my lantern and give a more realistic look when lit. 

Maybe it's not a show stopper but I was pleased and think it would make a very nice centre piece for a Halloween Party.  

Gingerbread

• 250g unsalted butter
• 200g dark muscovado sugar
• 7 tbsp golden syrup
• 600g plain flour
• 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 4 tsp ground ginger
• 2 tsp cinnamon

1. Heat oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Melt the butter, sugar and syrup in a pan. Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ground ginger and cinnamon into a large bowl, then stir in the butter mixture to make a stiff dough. If it won't quite come together, add a tiny splash of water.
2. On a piece of greaseproof/baking paper roll out dough to about the thickness of 2 £1 coins.  Cut out the shapes and transfer still on the greaseproof/baking paper to a cookie sheet.   Bake for approx 10-12 minutes.