300g butter
125g caster sugar
125g brown sugar
225g treacle, or golden syrup
725g plain flour Bicarbonate of soda
3 tsp ground Ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon

'glue' icing

2 egg whites
500g icing sugar

hundreds and thousands
chocolate buttons
dolly mixtures, silver balls, etc

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/Gas 4. Line two baking trays with baking paper.
Melt the butter, caster sugar, brown sugar and treacle in a large saucepan.

Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger and cinnamon together, add the melted butter and sugar mixture and stir well until it comes together like sticky dough.

wrap in cling film and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.

roll out the dough to 1/2" thick and cut out the pieces until you have a front and back wall, two side walls and two roof panels.

Carefully move onto baking trays and bake for 12 – 15 minutes. Remove the trays from the oven and allow stand for a few minutes to firm up. Cut out a door on the front wall and windows on the side walls and reserve the cut-out pieces for later. Place on a wire rack for a few minutes