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Santa, your reindeer taste so good!
In the form of a super moist, super chocolatey cupcake. Of course, Rudolph and his friends are covered in whipped chocolate frosting that tastes almost mousse like and then decorated with chocolate covered pretzels, mini Nilla Wafers and M&Ms. Seriously, I never knew Reindeer could taste so good!
Honestly though these are the cutest cupcakes. They are so fun and so good and so simple!
They are perfect for any of your upcoming Christmas parties and trust me people with go crazy for them. Like out of their mind, do anything for these cupcakes. I was taking pictures and taking forever because I am not a photographer and taking pretty pictures is harder than you may think! Anyway, I was taking way too long because I had some very hungry people chomping at the bit for one of these guys! Someone had a bit of a meltdown because she could not wait any longer to bite Rudolph’s nose off……Asher.
The whole time I was taking pictures of these cute little guys I had some nice background music of “Tiegy I am hungry, my tummy is hungry for those cupcakes, I want Rudolph”. They are almost too cute to eat……..almost.
Chocolate Reindeer Cupcakes
Ingredients
- For the Cupcakes:
- 1 1/4 cups Granulated sugar
- 1-3/4 cups All-purpose flour
- 1 cup Cocoa
- 1-1/2 teaspoons Baking powder
- 1-1/2 teaspoons Baking soda
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 2 Eggs, room temperature*
- 1 cup Buttermilk, room temperature*
- 1/2 cup Vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla extract
- 1 cup Coffee, boiling hot
- Whipped Chocolate Frosting:
- 3 Sticks Unsalted Butter, Softened
- 3 cups Powdered Sugar
- 3/4 cups Cocoa Powder
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
- 1/8 cup Milk, or more
- To assemble:
- 24 Nilla Wafers, vanilla wafer cookies
- 23 Brown M&M's or brown Reese's Pieces
- 1 Red M&M
- 48 Candy Eyes or White Chocolate Chips
- 24 Pretzel Twists, broken in half
- 1/2 cup Chocolate Chips, melted
Instructions
- For the cupcakes: Heat oven to 350°F. Line muffin cups with cupcake liners.
- Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, buttermilk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes.
- Stir in the boiling coffee (batter will be thin). Fill cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake 22 to 25 minutes. Cool completely. Frost.
- For the frosting: Beat butter on medium speed for two minutes. Add the powdered sugar and whip until combined. Add the cocoa powder and whip until fully incorporated. Mix in the vanilla and milk. Add more milk if the frosting looks too dark. You want the color to be light brown like milk chocolate mousse. Whip for one last minute. Frost the cupcakes.
- To assemble: Line a baking sheet with wax paper. Carefully break pretzels into large antlers (I over-broke several pretzels before I got it just right, so you may want to be prepared with extra pretzels). Dip the tops of the antlers in the melted chocolate and place on the baking sheet and place in the fridge to harden.
- Generously frost the cupcake with chocolate frosting.
- Place the mini vanilla wafer near the bottom center of the cupcake. Place a small amount of the frosting onto the back of the red or brown M&M and attach it to the top center of the vanilla wafer.
- Once the chocolate has hardened to the antlers remove them from the fridge and attach the pretzels at the top of the cupcake, pointing diagonally outward or inward (whatever you prefer).
- After the pretzel antlers are arranged, add the M&M or candy eyes into place (for me it was directly above the vanilla wafer snout).
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Did you make this recipe? Please rate & comment below.
Watch out Rudolph, she’s going in for the kill.
They look delicious! Thanks for sharing on Foodie Friends Friday! Please come back to vote on Sunday! We would appreciate if you would please put a link back to FFF somewhere on your post! Thank you!
These are such cute cupcakes.
Debi
These are adorable! What a cute treat for the kid’s during the holidays. Thanks so much for sharing at Mix it up Monday http://www.flourmewithlove.com/2012/12/mix-it-up-monday_9.html 🙂
Oh my goodness! They are super cute, and the presentation with the sleigh is lovely!
Thank you! It was really fun!
These cupcakes are awesome! I love the way you set them up too, in marshmallows!
Thank you, I have so say I had a lot a fun taking these photos!
These are too cute! Would love if you’d join our Countdown to Christmas link party! Hope to see you there! Have a great week! 🙂
http://dixie-n-dottie.blogspot.com/2012_12_11_archive.html
Your Chocolate Reindeer Cupcakes look adorable! Hope you are having a great week and thanks for sharing.
Miz Helen
These look so adorable! Thanks for sharing at Foodie Friends Friday!
Thank you, they are really and fun and really delicious!
So very cute! My little guys (and their friends) would love these! 🙂 You are a featured favorite this week on Saturday Show & Tell on Cheerios and Lattes! Thanks for sharing your great ideas with us each week; we love having you! Can’t wait to see what you’ve been up to this week!
Mackenzie 🙂
cheeriosandlattes.com
Those are sooo cute! they would be the hit of the party, for sure!
You may have heard, but we are giving away a SIlhouette Cameo along with free ad space every week at our link party. Would love if you stopped by! http://www.oneprojectcloser.com/giveaway-and-the-humble-brag-link-party-10/
Adorable!
These are so cute, perfect for a class party! You had the perfect taste tester as well, adorable!
Thanks, and yes she is the PERFCT taste tester! SHe went crazy fro these!
They are really cute. What great festive cakes
These cupcakes are so cute, I’m delighted with these awesome idea! I’ve featured this recipes on my blog! I hope you don’t mind! If you don’t agree with that please contact me and I will remove it. All the best.
Thank you so much for the feature! I am honored! Could you send me the link? I would love to check it out along with your site!
You’re welcome. I’m glad that you agree to share your cute cupcakes on my blog. Here is the link : http://www.cupcakesgarden.com/christmas-chocolate-reindeer-cupcakes/#more-10019
Love your cupcakes and I think she did the kill on Rudolph………….enjoy the holidays andi