NOTHING beats the smell of Christmas - the hint of pine, the mulled wine bubbling away on the stove and the aroma of freshly baked biscuits.

Take it one step further and turn those biscuits into tree decorations for a look that's cute, classy and utterly delicious. Here’s how:

To make the biscuits you will need: 350g plain flour, 100g self-raising flour, 125g granulated sugar, 125g salted butter, diced, 125g golden syrup, 1 large egg, lightly beaten.

To make: Sift the flours together into a mixing bowl, add the sugar and mix. Add the butter. Rub the ingredients together until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. When all the butter is evenly mixed in, make a well in the centre and add the syrup and the egg. Mix well and stop as soon as a ball has formed.

Place the dough onto a clean worktop. Divide into two and squash the dough into two even-sized flat discs. Cover and chill until ready to use, or roll out immediately.

To roll, place it onto a sheet of parchment, cover with a second sheet and use a rolling pin to roll it until it is 5mm thick all over. Transfer the whole sheet (still sandwiched between parchment,) to a baking tray and place in the fridge to chill for 20-30 minutes before cutting.

Cut your biscuits carefully using cutters and save the trimmings to be re-rolled.

Preheat the oven to 170C/gas mark 4.

Cut a hole at the top of each biscuit before baking. Evenly spread the biscuits on a baking tray and cook for 14-18 minutes.

Cool the biscuits on wire racks before either icing, storing or eating, but be careful, as they will be fragile and hot.

To make the royal icing for decorating you will need: 4 pasturised egg whites and 900g icing sugar.

To make: Add the dry ingredients to the egg whites and whisk or beat for about five minutes. Continue until the ingredients form a thick, smooth paste that has the consistency of toothpaste.

Divide the icing into different bowls and add the different coloured dyes.

And so now it’s time to create your masterpieces. Put your icing for the decorative lines into a piping bag and use squeezy bottles for the icing you will use to fill in the designs.

Study the icing you want to copy, then take the line icing and pipe on your outline. Make sure your piping bag is twisted and held tight and keep the pressure on throughout.

Once you've completed the lines, the first biscuit should be dry enough for the ‘flooding’ icing to fill in the design.

Choose your colour then squeeze the bottle to release the icing into the area you need it, and swirl it around, using the nozzle to fill the space. If there are any tricky corners, use the tip of a cocktail stick to eke it out to the edge.

Once all the biscuits are decorated, they need to dry properly, which means popping them in a low oven for 30-45 minutes - 50C or gas mark 0.5 is fine for this.

Once they're simply put a thin bit of ribbon through the hole, tie it together and hang on the Christmas tree.