Preheat your oven to 180°C (160°C Fan, Gas Mark 4).

In your mixer with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar together until just combined and the sugar is incorporated into your butter. No need to beat until light and fluffy.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder and salt, until well incorporated.

Add your dry ingredients to the butter and sugar mix and then add the vanilla extract. Mix on a medium-low speed until your dough comes together to resemble slightly chunky wet sand. Don’t worry about bringing it together in the mixer.

Tip the contents of your bowl onto a clean work surface and begin to bring your dough together by hand. The mix will look very dry but work and knead it until you have a smooth pliable ball. Split your ball into 3 equal parts. Wrap 2 with cling film and set them aside.

Take your first ball and place it between two sheets of parchment paper. Roll this out until your dough forms a slightly bigger circle than your chosen dinner plate. This should be approximately half a centimetre thick.

Remove the top piece of parchment and place your plate on top of your rolled out dough, use a knife to trace around the plate, making a big circle. Remove your plate and place the small bowl upside down in the middle of your circle. Then cut out a smaller circle. Remove the excess dough from around your larger circle and from the inside of your smaller circle. You should now have a ring shape.

Slide the parchment with your ring onto your baking tray and repeat with the 2 remaining balls of dough so that you have 3 identical rings. Wrap the excess dough in cling film and store in the fridge or freezer until you are ready to use it up.

Place the trays in the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Once baked, leave these to cool on their trays for ten minutes and then transfer to the freezer to fully cool before stacking and decorating.

Place the trays in the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Once baked, leave these to cool on their trays for ten minutes and then transfer to the freezer to fully cool before stacking and decorating.

Preheat your oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6 and place 300g caster sugar on a lined baking tray, then put in the oven for 7 minutes.

Place the whites of 4 large free range eggs in a stand mixer and whisk slowly to allow small stabilising bubbles to form, increasing the speed until stiff peaks form.

Take the sugar out of the oven and turn the heat down to 100C/80C fan/¼ gas. With the mixer on full speed, slowly spoon in the hot sugar and continue to whisk for 5 minutes or until all the sugar is incorporated.

To add colour, paint stripes of Dr. Oetker Red Food Colour Gel onto the inside of your piping bag, then pour the meringue mixture into the piping bag. Pipe out the kisses onto a lined tray and bake for 35-45 minutes. Allow to cool in the oven.

Repeat first three steps of the Meringue Kisses.

Pour the meringue mixture into a piping bag. To create the snowmen, pipe one large circular blob onto a lined tray, then pipe a slightly smaller blob on top, and finally top with an even smaller blob for the head. Repeat until you’ve used all the mixture. Bake for 35-45 minutes and allow to cool in the oven.

To add features, use a small paintbrush and Dr. Oetker’s Black and Orange Food Colour Gels to add two dots of the Black Food Colour Gel for eyes, three dots for buttons and a small line for a smile. Then add a nose using the Orange Food Colour Gel, and leave to dry.

Melt 50g Dr. Oetker White Chocolate and add a few drops of Dr. Oetker Green Food Colour Gel. Combine and pour into a piping bag, then place 10 cocktail sticks on a lined tray. Pipe the chocolate over the sticks, starting two thirds of the way down, and continue upwards until you have a tree shape. Chill until needed.

Gather your 3 chocolate shortbread rings, your decorations and toppings and lay them out ready to use on your workstation.

In the centre of a serving platter or board, place your first ring down and secure with tiny bit of buttercream underneath so that the shortbread doesn’t slide around.

Start neatly piping small balls of buttercream on top of your ring. You should be able to fit three balls of buttercream across the width of the ring the whole way around.

Place your second ring on top and repeat the previous step for each remaining ring, creating 3 layers of shortbread and 3 layers of buttercream.

When your shortbread is stacked and iced, it’s time to decorate the top layer of buttercream with your meringue kisses, berries, sprinkle, chocolate stars, chocolate Christmas trees and meringue snowmen. Start with the biggest items, then add in smaller ones and finish with the sprinkles.

Once you have fully decorated your showstopper masterpiece, it is ready to serve!