Christmas snowman cookies

Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1/2 tsp nutmeg powder
1/2 tsp clove powder
1/2 tsp fine salt
1 1/2 cups fine sugar
1 cup softened margarine or butter (250g)
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla essence
red, white and green Royal Icing

Home Made Royal icing:
2 egg whites
12 tbsp icing sugar, sifted

Method:
1. Mix dry ingredients together except for the sugar.
2. Cream the softened butter or margarine with the sugar in a large bowl for about 1 to 2 minutes. Add the eggs and vanilla essence and beat well. Mix in the dry ingredients, knead well and put into a bowl. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and leave in the fridge for up to 4 hours.
3. Preheat the oven to 200 deg C. Line 2 baking trays with greaseproof paper and lightly grease the paper.
4. On a floured surface, roll out the dough to 1/4cm thickness. With a cookie cutter, cut into star and snowman shapes. If you do not have a cookie cutter, just cut into round shapes.
5. Bake for 15 minutes till lightly coloured and cooked. Remove to wire rack and cool before decorating with Royal Icing.

Royal icing:
1. Put the egg whites in a bowl and pour the icing sugar over, stirring well to form a homogenous mixture, not too runny and not too dry. It should be like a soft and slightly runny dough. Add more egg whites or sugar, according to the texture of the mixture.
2. Divide into 3 and colour 1 portion red, 1 portion green and leave 1 portion white. Use a thin piping nozzle and pipe patterns on to the cookies.

Recipe source: Today newspaper