Put the plain flour, black cocoa powder, light brown soft sugar, salt, ground ginger, and mixed spice into a large mixing bowl and stir them together
Add the butter in chunks or cubes and use your fingers to rub it into the flour mixture until it resembles breadcrumbs. Or you can use a food processor to do this
Next add the egg, golden syrup, black treacle and vanilla extract. Stir them into the mixture until a dough forms. Try not to over work the dough
Roll the dough out onto a well floured surface using a rolling pin. Move the dough around every few rolls to make sure it isn't sticking to your surface. Aim for a thickness of 3-5mm
Using a gingerbread man cookie cutter, cut out your shapes. You will need to re-roll the dough out to use it all up
Lay the shapes out onto lined baking trays, and put them in the fridge to chill for 15 minutes
While they're chilling, pre-heat your oven to 160C Fan/350F/Gas Mark 4
Bake the gingerbread men for 10-12 minutes. It is hard to tell when they are done because they are black, they will look dry and not have any raw dough patches, but they will still be soft (they will firm up as they cool)
Let the biscuits cool on the trays as if you remove them too soon they could break apart
For the icing, mix the icing sugar with the vanilla and water, add the water slowly and mix until you have a thick pipeable paste
Put the icing into a piping bag and snip a little off the end, then pipe the skeleton features onto the biscuits
Store in an airtight container and eat within 1 week. They can also be frozen