IKEA has developed instructions for how to assemble the Billy bookcase and some of its other seminal furniture designs using gingerbread and icing instead of screws and MDF.

The Gingerbread Höme assembly kits, which can be downloaded and printed out at home, resemble the company's traditional instruction manuals, including everything from the inventory to the step-by-step illustrations.

But they also come with a full page of templates, showing each of the different elements that make up a furniture piece.

From the swooping armrests of the Strandmon chair to the simple, geometric forms of the Malm bedframe, these can be placed on sheets of rolled-out gingerbread dough and traced around to cut out the shapes.

Once baked, they can then be combined into complete, miniature furniture items using the accompanying guide.

"In true IKEA fashion, each furniture cookie is designed to be easy to assemble," the company said. "The best part about it is there's no Allen key needed."

The resulting pieces are designed to make traditional, sparsely furnished gingerbread houses feel like a real gingerbread home.

"Every year many gingerbread houses are created but we know there's always something missing," IKEA said.

"The Gingerbread Höme will transform your existing gingerbread house with all the delicious home furnishings it needs to take it to the next level."

For those who want to continue the tradition year after year, IKEA has also designed gingerbread furniture kit 3D files that can be downloaded and 3D-printed to make reusable cookie cutters.

Earlier this year, IKEA released another set of assembly manuals detailing how to build forts using its furniture and homeware pieces, in order to keep kids entertained during coronavirus lockdown.

American software engineer Akiva Leffert has also used the company's hallmark instructional infographics to illustrate a Tarot deck, with the Lovers card visualised by a couple that is about to assemble a piece of furniture.