Preheat your oven to 160C Can / 180C and place cupcake cases into your cupcake tin. I sprinkle a little rice into each hole before the case as this helps reduce unwanted moisture.

Cream together your softened butter and sugar using an electric hand whisk. Do so until lighter in colour and fluffier in texture.

Gradually add your eggs (I whisk briefly in between each addition) and mix in.

Sift in your flour, cocoa, baking powder and xanthan gum and then mix with your electric hand whisk until combined.

Spoon your mixture into your cupcake cases and place in the preheated oven for 20-22 minutes.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool very briefly in the tin, then move the cases to a cooling rack.

For the buttercream, ensure your butter is soft and at room temperature. I find it takes a good hour out of the fridge to soften, but never let it go too soft! Place your butter into a large bowl or a stand mixer and mix on a medium speed for about 3-5 minutes until the butter has gone a lot more pale in colour.

Add your icing sugar gradually. I add it in 2 stages and beat for about 3 minutes between each addition. Start your mixer slowly to save your kitchen from a real icing sugar mess, but then increase the speed to medium / high for each of your 3 minutes.

Add your vanilla extract and mix once more then add your green food colouring. Ideally use a highly concentrated gel colouring rather than a liquid one (Sugar flair, Colour Splash and Pro Gel are all brands I use). Mix thoroughly so the colouring coats all the buttercream and its the colour you want - with good colouring you shouldn't need more than a tsp really, but get it to a colour you are happy with.

It should now be done. Ensure it's the right thickness - it should be if you've beaten it for long enough. However, if it's too thick you can add a tiny amount of milk. And if too thin, sieve in a little extra icing sugar - this might be the case for dairy free buttercream using hard margarine. Neither of these should be necessary but I thought I'd mention, just incase!

Once your cupcakes are cool, transfer your green icing into a piping bag with a medium closed star nozzle. See the video in my 5 top tips for perfection above for guidance. Then, pipe your buttercream on top.

Finish with large pearl sprinkles and place around each cupcake like baubles. Next, scatter smaller colourful sprinkles on top and sift on a delicate sprinkling of icing sugar to look like snow.

Finish with a chocolate star on top (I covered some of mine in a little gold leaf for the ultimate finish). Of course, these are just how I finished mine in the photos - feel free to use whatever you like!