Halloween Cookie Cutter Test

Halloween baking runs on a small, familiar set of silhouettes, and a cutter is the quickest route to a tray of biscuits that look like somebody meant it rather than iced circles with a face drawn on. This is a pressed-shape cutter for rolled dough: press, lift, peel away the offcuts, bake. It works on shortbread and gingerbread, and the same outline is useful for fondant, sugarpaste and rolled marzipan if you are decorating a cake rather than filling a tin. Easy to keep in the drawer with the seasonal bits and pull out once a year. Printed cutters like this cost pennies compared with a shop-bought metal one, and if a child bends one out of shape you simply run another. Handy for school bake sales, party trays and an afternoon of decorating before trick-or-treating starts.