Using a handheld or stand mixer, cream dairy-free butter and white sugar in a large bowl until light in colour. Add the egg and vanilla extract and continue mixing on high for 2-3mins until fully combined.

In a separate bowl, sift together the plain flour, black cocoa powder and baking powder. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients slowly until the mixture just comes together into a soft dough.

Divide dough evenly into 2 parts and roll each out onto baking paper until it’s approximately 3-5mm thick. Make sure to flour your hands and rolling pin using a combination of flour and black cocoa powder, if the dough is too sticky. Place the rolled out dough into the fridge for at least 1 hour to chill. This will ensure the cookie shapes hold when in the oven.

Preheat the oven to 180°C and line two baking trays with baking paper.

Remove each piece of dough from the fridge and use a cookie cutter to make shapes, until all the dough is used. Place shapes onto the baking sheet and place in the oven for 8-10 minutes or until cookies start to firm up.

Repeat the above steps, combining any left over dough together and rolling it out again until all of the dough has been used. Make sure to keep your dough in the fridge when not working with it so it's cold before you bake the cut out cookies.

Let the cookies cool for a couple of minutes on the tray to firm up before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely before icing.

Decorate the cookies using royal icing as you like and let the cookies sit at room temperature until the icing hardens and sets before transferring to an airtight container for storage.