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Reindeer Cupcakes

ByLizzy Mae Early

The CUTEST Christmas Cupcakes! These Reindeer Cupcakes steal the show at every party and with a red nose they can be Rudolph Cupcakes! 

How to make Reindeer Cupcakes for Christmas. SO easy and adorable. Use a red M&M to make them Rudolph Cupcakes!

The BEST Christmas Cupcakes! Rudolph Reindeer Cupcakes are so easy to make!

Cute Christmas Cupcakes… Rudolph the red nosed cupcake!

You’ll notice I made my own candy eyes using M&M’s but you can always just buy candy eyes at the grocery store in the baking aisle! Back when I made these the first time, candy eyes were only sold at specialty stores like Michales and Hobby Lobby, but today candy eyes are in most grocery stores which is a BIG win!  I love using them at Christmas and Halloween.  These Rudolph Reindeer Cupcakes are always a huge hit with kids because they’re easy and fun to make AND best of all they turn out like the picture! I love using simple store-bought items to make my little desserts come alive because it sets you and your kids up for success.  No pinterest fail memes for this recipe!

A decorating tip with kids: Put all the decorating ingredients like the vanilla wafers, red M&M, brown M&M’s, mini pretzels and candy eyes in a cupcake pan (muffin tin).  Each ingredient can be in different “wells” so they stay separated.  You could also place them in cupcake wrappers on a plate.  When I do my kids decorating classes I try to keep everything as organized as possible because it seems to keep the kids a little more tidy too.

Look at the adorable Rudolph! You could make 12 Rudolphs of just one to lead the pack!

reindeer cupcakes

Cute Reindeer Cupcakes

You can use a scratch recipe for the cupcakes but I tend to leave the flour, sugar, and everything else in the pantry and just pull out a good-ole cake mix.

There are 16 days until Christmas! I wrapped a pile of presents and sent out family Christmas cards, now I just need a tree! I’ll confess I’ve been watching Christmas movies since mid November and still going strong every night with a cup of hot chocolate.  Thanks to Netflix, the Lifetime and Hallmark channels I will never run out of cheesy Christmas romances full of mistletoe, perfect snow and flying reindeer.

These aren’t something new, there have been a lot of posts on blogs about these cute cakes.  But I couldn’t seem to find a really good how-to post, so I thought I’d offer my take on them.  Now, there are a few ways to do the pretzel antlers but I like this way because it’s the most simple and really easy to pack and deliver to friends and family.  

I used Nilla Wafers (or store brand) for the muzzles, brown M&M’s for the noses, and white chocolate mint M&M’s for the eyes with a dot of melted chocolate.

How to make Reindeer Cupcakes

I hope you love these cute Christmas cupcakes as much as my family does! Enjoy them at home and at your holiday party this year!

Reindeer Cupcakes

4.94 from 15 votes
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Ingredients
  

Chocolate Cake:

  • 1 box devil's food cake mix
  • 3 eggs
  • 1/2 C. oil
  • 2 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 1 C. milk or buttermilk
  • 1/2 C. sour cream

Chocolate Frosting:

  • 1 C. butter
  • 1/3 C. unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 2-3 C. powdered sugar
  • 2 Tbsp. milk

Pretzles, for antlers

Nilla Wafers, for muzzles

Brown M&M's for noses (some red for Rudolph)

White Mint M&M's for eyes

Instructions
 

  • 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line pans with cupcake liners.
  • 2. Sift cake mix into a small bowl and set aside.
  • 3. In a large bowl, combine eggs, oil, vanilla extract, milk and sour cream until smooth.
  • 4. Stir in cake mix.
  • 5. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full and bake for 16-20 minutes or until an inserted knife comes out clean.
  • 6. Let cool.
  • 7. Chocolate frosting: Beat butter. Add cocoa powder, 2 C. powdered sugar and milk. Slowly add more powdered sugar until you reach your desired consistency.
  • 8. Prep reindeer "faces" by using frosting to stick brown M&M's on Nilla Wafers (some red for Rudolphs if you want). Melt down a few chocolate chips, put in a small plastic bag, snip off the tip to make a mini piping bag and "dot" little eyeballs on the white M&M's to make eyes.
  • 9. Frost cupcakes.
  • 10. (See photos below) Place Nilla wafers with M&M's on cupcakes, then place pretzels above. Use a little frosting to stick on 2 eyes and there you go!

how to make reindeer cupcake

Rudolph!

These are seriously so cute and easy for anyone to make!  

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67 Comments

  3. That actually makes it easier because you only need to buy one bag of M&M’s, the chocolate mint ones!

  4. So cute!!! You are always so creative!! I love how the recipe is simple but the results are spectacular!

  6. This is something my 9 year old can do with me. I think I just found the cupcakes to make for this year!

  7. So cute,clever, & creative!! Thank you for all your great stories &
    lovely sweets & recipes!
    Jackie

  8. I will probably end up buying the candy eyes they sell at some stores for the eyes, so I could cut out one additional step. This might cause the reindeer to be “bug-eyed” though. They are so cute I now have (another) holiday treat that my girls will love to help me make

  11. Just finished making a little over 50 of these with my 4 year old for my students and for her class! They are so cute, but man that was a lot of little reindeers! lol

  20. Love your cupcakes. Should I bake at a lower temperature or shorter time when using dark muffin tins? I’ve burned many cupcakes.

  21. My tins are dark! I bake mine for only 13 minutes, but I’m also in Utah where the altitude changes how long things bake for!

  22. Oh my goodness, thank you so much for this! I have seen this many places, but you laid it out so well that even I can make them!

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  29. 5 stars
    Looks like such a cute cupcake. I want to make these for my Grandson’s birthday. Can you make these in advance without the pretzels and wafers going soft sitting in the icing?

  31. 5 stars
    It’s beautiful and delicious. I have followed your page and applied the cake recipes with great success. Simple re-implementation. I don’t think I can make cakes. Thank you for sharing the article.

  33. Hi! I’m trying to make these and I’m having trouble getting the white m&M’s to stay. Any tips?

  39. This is truly a lovely cake for the upcoming Christmas season, thanks for sharing this lovely recipe!

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  43. 5 stars
    reindeer cupcakes. a dentist would love to try these after a long day of work looking into people’s teeth.

  45. 5 stars
    does your clinic have these cupcakes in the cafe? someone might wanna try them after a dental session with you.

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