Method (buns)

1. Pour the warm dairy-free milk into a bowl and sprinkle over the yeast and a tablespoon of the sugar, stir. Cover with a tea towel then put into a warm place for around 8-10 minutes until frothy. TIP: To heat the milk, add it into a small saucepan and simmer until it’s warm. If the milk is too hot it can kill the yeast, so make sure its just warm.
2. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar and cocoa powder. Mix to combine.
3. Once the yeast mixture is frothy, pour into the dry ingredients along with the oil.
4. Mix with a hand whisk or attach a dough hook to your stand mixer and begin to knead on medium until nice and smooth. The dough should be soft, smooth and slightly sticky.
5. Once kneaded, place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a tea towel and place into a warm area (I place mine in my conservatory) and allow to prove for around 2-3 hours or until double in size.
6. Line a baking tray with grease proof paper. You might want to line two just in case.
7. Once doubled, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, form into a large dough ball and divide the dough into equal balls. Weigh the balls out to 100g each. Take each ball of dough and roll it with your hands to form a smooth, round shape (watch my video tutorial here). Place the dough balls on a lined baking tray lined with grease paper and let proof a second time in a warm place for 1 hour. The buns will puff up on their second prove and will also rise in the oven, so make sure to space them out on the tray / trays.
8. Once ready to make, preheat oven to 180°C fan. Brush the top and sides of each bun with some dairy-free milk, place onto the bottom rack of the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes, or until the tops of the buns are golden in colour, and soft to touch.
9. Allow the buns to cool fully before cutting open and filling with cream.

Method (Cream filling and decoration)

1. Whisk the dairy-free cream and cocoa powder using an electric hand whisk or in a stand mixer fitted with a balloon whisk attachment until it has thickened and soft peaks form. Transfer the whipped cream into a piping bag fitted with a round nozzle (you can even use a star tip nozzle for a different effect).
2. Use a sharp serrated knife to cut open the buns open on a diagonal, but do not cut all the way through!
3. Spread some chocolate spread on one half of the bun, then pipe in some of the chocolate cream, continue piping in the cream until the bun is filled, then use a clean knife to scrape the cream flush to the bun.
4. Roll little balls of black fondant and press on to white chocolate buttons. This makes the reindeer eyes.
5. Press a glacé cherry into the middle of the front of the buns, into the cream and press the eyes above, either side of the cherry (refer to photos for reference).
6. Melt some dark chocolate in a microwave or on the hob, transfer into a piping bag and snip off the tip.
7. Line a tray or board with grease proof paper. Pipe antlers on the paper then place into the freezer to set.
8. Make a hole in the tops of the buns and place in the antlers.
9. Dust the buns with some icing sugar. Serve and enjoy!