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.

Print 4.36 from 28 votes Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed. The Recipe Chocolate Reindeer Cupcakes By halfbakedharvest Course: Dessert Cuisine: American Keyword: rudolph cupcakes 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

Prep Time 25 minutes Cook Time 25 minutes Total Time 50 minutes Servings 24 Calories 278 kcal 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). Recipe Notes *To bring eggs to room temp, place them in a glass of hot water for 5 minutes. *To bring the buttermilk to room temp, place in the microwave for about 30 seconds. *The pretzel thins I used are the bite size pretzel twists, but either thins or regular twists can be used. Save to Recipe BoxGo to Recipe Box

Watch out Rudolph, she’s going in for the kill.