We had our Christmas Pot Luck at work yesterday, and when asked what I wanted to bring the first thing I blurted out was DESSERT! Desserts are second nature to me during the holiday season, due to many years of baking this time of year! I thought of making something out of my classic recipe collection, but in the end I decided to make something new. I already had an incredible chocolate cake recipe for the chocolate cupcakes, so it was just a matter of how to decorate them…
The other night after work I was hanging out with my friend and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer came on the TV – do you remember that movie from your childhood? Such a classic! I searched around Pinterest and found some variations of reindeer cupcakes that looked so cute, I just had to make these for my pot luck. I used pretzels for the antlers, different colored cake frostings for the face, and red M&Ms for the nose.
I wish you all a Merry Christmas! I can’t believe it is already here…I wanted to bake so much more than I had time for this year, but that just leaves more ideas for next season 😉
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1¾ cups sugar
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup milk
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup boiling water
- 1 tub of chocolate frosting
- White and black cake decorating frosting tubes
- 18 red M&Ms
- 18 mini pretzel twists, cut in half
- Line 2 cupcakes pans with paper liners and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a stand mixer or with an electric mixer, combine all dry ingredients (flour to salt).
- While mixing on low speed, add the eggs, milk, vegetable oil and vanilla.
- Stop the mixer and add the hot water. Restart the mixer and beat the ingredients on low speed for 1 minute, until well combined.
- Use a laddle to distribute the batter among the cupcake liners, filling each ¾ full.
- Bake for 20 minutes, and test with a toothpick - if it comes out dry, they are done!
- Cool for 2 minutes, then remove from the pan and set on a wire rack to finish cooling, about 1 hour.
- Frost each cupcake with the chocolate frosting with a butterknife, then mix the remaining frosting with the white cake frosting to make a lighter brown color. Add a filled-in circle of the light brown in the lower half of each cupcake, then draw the eyes above it with the white and black frosting.
- Add the M&M noses and pretzel antlers.
SHUT UP these little guys are soooooooooooooo cute!!! Plus so chocolatey and delicious!
These are so darn cute Kristi! I wanted to stop by today to wish you a Happy New Year! Here’s looking forward to wonderful things for you and your family in 2015!
Oh,my,gosh. I’m dying of cuteness! These are hilarious and adorable!
xxo,
Kelly
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