• ½ × recipe Gingerbread Biscuits dough

Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan 170°C/350°F/gas mark 4. Line a baking sheet with baking parchment. Chill the dough, then roll it out to about 4mm thick on a lightly floured surface. Cut out the birds and pierce a hole in each with a skewer to thread through the ribbon later. Where you make the hole is important as it will affect the way the bird hangs. Press in a dragee eye for each bird. Bake for 10-15 minutes. Remove from the oven and re-form the holes with the skewer. Leave to firm up for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool. They will become crisp. When cool, stick a dragee eye on to the reverse side of each bird, using a little royal icing.

For the mobile, wind the wider ribbon round and round the hoop, overlapping and securing with a firm knot on the inside of the ring. Wrap the cardboard ring with ribbon too, and tie in the same way.

Cut the remaining wide ribbon into 4 equal lengths. Thread the end of 1 piece through a button and tie it around the hoop with a knot. Repeat with the other 3 lengths of ribbon and 3 more buttons, spacing them out evenly around the hoop. Take the other ends of these 4 ribbons and thread them through the cardboard ring, then through the final button. Knot off neatly.

Take 60mm of the narrow ribbon and loop it, too, through the top button. This will hang the mobile.

Thread more of the narrow ribbon through each gingerbread bird. Hang 2 from the cardboard ring and 5 from the embroidery hoop.