Place the butter, sugar, golden syrup, and treacle in a saucepan over low heat and stir until melted. Then, take the pan off the heat.

Mix in the ginger, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and bicarbonate of soda, and whisk to mix the ingredients together, until the mixture becomes smooth and foams up a bit.

Stir in the flour with a wooden spoon until it is fully blended and there are no dry patches of flour left. Wrap the dough in clingfilm or plastic wrap and stick it in the refrigerator until it becomes firm enough to roll out. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface or between two sheets of baking parchment to a thickness of 3-5 mm, depending on your desired cookie thickness.

Using your choice of gingerbread cookie cutters, cut out as many shapes as possible from the dough.

Gather the cookie dough scraps into a ball and roll them out again to cut out more shapes. Place the cookies, with some space in between, onto two baking sheets lined with parchment paper, as they will spread a bit when cooked.

Place the trays in the freezer for 15 minutes so they can become solid. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 180 °C (350 °F) or gas mark 4.

Let the cookies rest on the trays for a few minutes, then shift them to a wire rack and let them cool completely to room temperature.

Once the cookies have cooled down, prepare the royal icing. Put some sifted icing sugar in a bowl and mix in the lemon juice and aquafaba. The consistency should be thick but pourable. If the mixture is too thick, add in some lemon juice or aquafaba, and if it is too runny, add some extra icing sugar.

Move the frosting to a pastry bag that has a little circular writing tip and decorate the cookies however you like. Allow the embellished cookies to flatten out and dry for a few hours prior to putting them away in an airtight container.