• In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and ginger. Set aside.
• In the mixing bowl beat until soft and creamy about 2 minutes the butter and sugars, add the molasses and yolk and beat to combine. Add the dry ingredients and beat just to combine. Move the dough to a lightly floured flat surface and knead to form a ball, wrap in plastic and refrigerate the cookie dough for at least one hour. You can also chill it overnight.
• Roll the dough to ¼ inch thickness, cut out with 2 ½ inch round cookie cutter. Place the cookies on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet, leaving them 1-1½ inches apart. Refrigerate the cookies while the oven is pre-heating.
• Pre-heat the oven to 350F (180C)
• Bake the cookies 8-10 minutes. Leave the cookies on the cookie sheet for approximately 10 minutes, then move to a wire rack to cool completely before decorating. Enjoy.

ROYAL ICING

• In a small/medium bowl beat the egg white until light and frothy, add in the sifted powdered/icing sugar and lemon juice, beat on medium speed until thick and shiny. Add colouring if using. Fill the pastry bag with the small hole tip and decorate the cookies. The icing should firm up in about 1-2 hours.

  If using meringue powder - In a small/medium bowl, whisk together the sifted icing/powdered sugar and meringue powder, add the water and beat together on medium speed for approximately until 2 minutes, if too thick add a drop or two of water (to start) too thin a little more icing/powdered sugar, beat to combine, about 15-20 seconds.