Melt the vegan butter in a large bowl at bain-marie. Alternatively use the defrost mode of the microwave for 2 minutes.

Add muscovado sugar to the melted butter and whisk until the mixture turns soft and fluffy.

Add the cocoa powder (sifted), ground ginger, vanilla extract or sugar, baking soda and a pinch of salt. Whisk thoroughly until all incorporated.

Pour in room temperature plant milk (or lukewarm) and give the mixture another good whisk till all combined.

Finally, sift in the flour and mix it in with a spatula until an uniform dough is formed.

Wrap the cookie dough in cling film and set to rest in the fridge for at least 1 hour (or 30 minutes in the freezer if you want to speed up the process).

Meanwhile preheat the oven at 180° C (355°F).

Once the dough has chilled, dust the working station with a bit of flour, then roll the dough to around 3-5 mm thickness, depending on how crispy and snappy you want your cookies to be, and cut out the cookies.

Arrange the cookies on baking trays lined with baking paper. And bake the cookies for 7 to 11 minutes, according to the size you picked. Tip: make sure you separate cookies in similar size groups, as they will need more or less time in the oven. Cookies of 2 cm diameter cook in as little as 7 minutes, while bigger cookies, such as Christmas trees and big snow flakes (5-6 cm size) need up to 11 minutes. When ready, the cookies will brown a little on the edges whilst still be slightly soft to the touch. They will harden whilst cooling down.

While the cookies are baking prepare the royal icing by mixing icing sugar with your choice of liquid until you end up with a thick, yet pourable icing. If you want to make coloured icing, divide the mixture into separate bowls and add a few drops of food colourings until the desired shade. Transfer the icing into piping bag(s).

Once ready, transfer the cookies onto a cooling rack. Then decorate with the royal icing once they have cooled down.

You can store the biscuits in an air-tight container for a couple of weeks (if they last!).