Christmas Biscuits

1. Whisk the butter thoroughly in a bowl until really soft, then beat in the sugar a little at a time and finally fold in the flour. Knead lightly until smooth.

2. Roll out the dough on a floured work surface to the thickness of a 10p piece.

3. For the star: using star cutters, cut eight 6.5 cm (2 1/2 inch) stars and eight 2.5 cm (1 inch) stars. Place a small star on top of a large one and, using a skewer, make a hole in the centre of one of the outer points of each biscuit. Bake in the oven at 1 50°C (300f) mark 2 for about 25 minutes; cool. Coat the small stars with yellow glace icing and place silver balls at smaller star points. Leave to dry before threading ribbon through the holes.

4. For Santa faces: knead and re-roll the dough and stamp out ten 5.5 cm (2 1/4 inch) rounds. Make a hole with a skewer about 0.5 cm (1/4 inch) from the edge; bake and cool. Use thick red glace icing to make the hat and white to make the beard. Use marzipan for the nose and mouth and currants for the eyes. Attach these with a blob of white icing. When dry, hang up with ribbon.