Method (cupcakes)

1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees c fan and line a cupcake tin with cupcake cases.
2. In a small bowl, combine the dairy-free milk with the apple cider vinegar and whisk until fully combined.
3. In a large mixing bowl, sift the flour, sugar, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda. Mix well to combine.
4. Add the vanilla and oil to the ‘buttermilk’ and whisk to combine.
5. Add the wet ingredients into the dry and mix until a smooth batter
6. Fill the cases 3/4 full with the batter. Make sure to tap the tins on the worktop to remove any air bubbles.
7. Pop the cakes into the preheated oven and bake for 18-20 minutes. You will know they are done when you put a knife or skewer in and it comes out clean and they are springy to the touch.
8. Place the cupcakes on a cooling rack and allow to cool fully before frosting.

Method (buttercream)

1. In a large mixing bowl, add in the dairy-free butter and whip until creamy. I use a stand mixer with a balloon whisk attachment, a hand mixer will work great too.
2. Sift in the icing sugar and peppermint flavouring, whip together. The buttercream will be very thick.
3. Pour in the aquafaba and whip for 5 minutes until it turns light and creamy. Don’t over whip it or it can become too soft. If it does, just add in more icing sugar until it’s thick and creamy.
4. Your Swiss meringue buttercream should be thick, very creamy and silky smooth. If it feels too heavy, add chunks more butter / splashes of aquafaba until it’s very light.
5. Take out a little but of white buttercream and add it into a small piping bag.
6. Add a few drops of green food gel to the remaining buttercream and whip to combine.
7. Transfer the green buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a large star tip nozzle. I use a Wilton 2D tip.
8. Pipe a thin, flat swirl of white buttercream on top of each cupcake. Dip the buttercream into white sprinkles or desiccated coconut. This resembles snow.
9. Turn an ice-cream cone upside down and press into the white buttercream
10. Pipe star-shapes of the buttercream onto / around the entire surface of the cone beginning at the bottom and working all the way up to the top, until its fully covered.
11. Sprinkle vegan sprinkles all over the ‘tree’, and add a star sprinkle at the top of the tree.
12. Dust with some icing sugar, to resemble snow. Repeat for all of the cupcakes.
13. If you end up needing more buttercream, re-make a second batch and repeat.