Preheat the oven to 180 C or 350 F and line a 12-cup cupcake tray with paper liners.

To begin, pour the unsweetened almond milk into a bowl.

To the milk, add in 1 tsp of apple cider vinegar. Gently mix the two together- the mixture should separate slightly, that’s completely fine and exactly what we are going for.

To the milk mixture, stir in the oil, vanilla extract and the sugar. When all these 'wet' ingredients are combined, set the mixture aside.

In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Make a well in the centre of the bowl, and pour in the wet ingredient mixture.

Whisk everything together till you are left with a smooth, fairly runny batter. At that point stop mixing as over-mixing will result in the opposite of a light and fluffy cake.

Divide the mixture between the liner, you’ll need to fill each liner about ¾ of the way full. Now in all honesty I always make a little bit of a mess while doing this so if you have any tips be sure to leave them in the comments!

Bake the cupcakes for 20-22 minutes or until they have developed beautiful golden brown top, and a toothpick inserted should come out clean. Make sure not to open the oven door until they’re close to being done, because that will cause them to deflate slightly.

Let the cupcakes cool for 10 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack. They should be completely cool before frosting.

Begin by melting the butter. You can do this in the microwave, stirring after every 20 seconds or so or until it is smooth. Be careful, I have had times when the butter exploded!

Once the butter is melted and relatively cool, toss in the unsweetened cocoa powder, and give it a nice whisk. The texture will change, just make sure there are no lumps.

Add the vanilla extract and a pinch of salt.

Next, stir in the confectioners' sugar, alternating with the milk. Using an electric beater makes it easier but I always do it by hand anyway. The icing be clumpy in the beginning, but keep mixing- you’ll end up with a dreamy chocolate buttercream.

I like to pipe the frosting using a 1M star tip. You can also just spread the icing on top of the cupcakes using a knife.

I finished the cupcakes with chocolate sprinkles and crushed cookies, but feel free to use whatever topping you like.