Gingerbread Cookie Cutter

Few shapes are as fixed in the Christmas kitchen as the gingerbread man: arms out, legs apart, round head, the standing figure that has been pressed out of spiced dough for centuries before anyone thought to print a cutter for it. This is that outline as a baking tool, made for the December production line of tins, gift bags and tree decorations. It is not only a Christmas shape, though. The figure carries a whole year of decorating, from iced name-biscuits at children's parties to Easter and birthday batches where the same little body becomes whatever the icing says it is. It transfers straight across to fondant, sugarpaste and salt dough as well. A single-file cutter, and one of the few in any drawer that gets pulled out by the children rather than the adults.