Preheat oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4. Grease and line a 30x23cm (12x9in) cake tin. Cream together the butter and sugar. Sieve the almonds and the flour and add to the mixture.
Beat the eggs lightly and add gradually to the mixture together with the milk and the almond essence. Spoon the mixture into the tin, level the surface and bake for about 30 minutes. Leave to cool in the tin, then turn out on to a wire rack. Cut into 5cm (2in) squares. If you want taller parcels, sandwich two squares with some jam in between.
For the icing, take one quarter of the icing and colour it red. Roll out the icing on a work surface dusted with icing sugar until quite thin and cover the top and sides of each cake with icing, folding the edges over to form a parcel. You can also cut strips of white and red rolled icing to make a striped parcel.
Decorate with icing cut into shapes with small novelty cutters or mini-sweets and finish off by using strips of liquorice for ribbons around the presents.
