Reindeer Cupcakes for Christmas - A Tutorial

Learn how to make these cute reindeer cupcakes for Christmas with my easy to follow, step by step tutorial. These cute Christmas cupcake toppers will surely be a hit at your party!

Decorated Reindeer Cupcakes for Christmas

I made these reindeer cupcakes with the Rudolf the red nosed reindeer in mind. And off course, Christmas was on my mind too!

These cupcakes were decorated entirely in fondant, with the reindeer face cut out using simple round cutters and the antlers formed by hand. All in all, though it looks like quite a bit of work, if you prepare each part of Rudolf's face in batches, you will be able to put these toppers together pretty quickly.

See my full, step by step tutorial below and be on your way to making some of the cutest Christmas cupcake toppers!

How to Make Reindeer Cupcakes with Cute Rudolf Toppers

These were the main supplies I used to make these cupcakes:

Cupcakes - I used my vanilla cupcake recipe for the cupcakes and baked them in medium-sized muffin cups. The recipe yielded me 20 cupcakes.
Buttercream - I used a thin coat of buttercream on my cupcakes before attached the reindeer toppers on. The buttercream helps hold the topper in place.
Fondant - I used Satin Ice in white , dark chocolate , black and red .
Food Coloring - I used Americolor Chocolate Brown to tint my white fondant for the reindeer's face.
Fondant extruder tool - I used this tool to pipe out strips of dark brown for Rudolf's antlers.
Round scalloped cutter - I used a scalloped cutter to cut out the white background for the cupcake topper.
Round smooth cutter - This was used to cut the reindeer's face.
Plunger cutter - I used the largest of the round cutter in my plunger cutter set for the reindeer's nose.
Wooden skewer - This is to poke the holes in Rudolf's eyes to position his black eyes.
Shortening / Fondant Glue - I used shortening as the 'glue' in this project, except for the eyes which were attached using this glue.

And this was how to put the reindeer cupcakes together:

Baking the cupcakes

Start by baking your cupcakes in advance. Let them cool completely to room temperature before leveling them (if they are domed). Set aside while you complete the reindeer cupcakes toppers.
Knead and roll your white fondant to about ⅛ inch thick. You can even roll it thinner if you wish to have a thinner base. Cut it out using a round scalloped cutter. Make sure the diameter of the cutter matches the diameter of your cupcakes.

A scalloped round cutter on a piece of rolled white fondant

Reindeer face

Next, tint some white fondant with brown food coloring for the reindeer's face. I used Americolor Chocolate Brown to tint my white fondant. Roll it thin and cut out medium-sized circles using a smooth round cutter.
The diameter of the cutter should be about half the size of the earlier scalloped cutter. If you cut the face too big, there will not be enough space for the reindeer's antlers, so do keep that in mind.

Attach the brown circle cutout onto the white cutout with shortening as shown below. In fact, the face should be positioned towards the lower end of the white cutout:

A smaller piece of brown circle fondant cut out on a large piece of white circle fondant

The reindeer's red nose

Next, for the nose, roll out some red fondant and again, cut out a circle, this time about half the size of the brown circle. Attach it with shortening towards the lower end of the brown cut out.

A rolled piece of red fondant with a small circle cut out using a round plunger cutter

3 circle cutouts in white, brown and red, arranged on top of one another

The reindeer's eyes

Next, make the eyes. Pinch two tiny bits of white fondant and roll them into smooth balls. Pinch even tinier black fondant bits and roll them into smooth balls too.

2 tiny balls of black fondant and 2 slightly larger balls of white fondant

Start by attaching the white balls onto the reindeer's face as shown. You can use shortening to attach these.

Once they are in place, use a skewer or the back of a thin cake decorating brush to poke a hole in the center of each of the white balls.

Forming the eyes on fondant with the back of a paintbrush

Apply some fondant glue and drop the tiny black balls into the holes to completely Rudolf's eyes. Press the eyes lightly to flatten them slightly. When applying glue to the eyes, be careful not to use too much as it can cause the black to bleed. You only need to very lightly brush the glue to the fondant.

The reindeer's mouth

Next, attach the mouth. Pinch some chocolate fondant, roll it thin by hand (make the ends slightly pointy) and attach to the reindeer's face with shortening.

The antlers

Once the face is done, proceed to make the antlers. Start by filling in some dark chocolate fondant into an extruder tool fitted with a small round disc. Pipe out long strips of fondant and cut them into equal lengths. If you don't have an extruder tool, simply roll the fondant strips by hand. You would need two equal length-ed strips for the main part of the antlers. Use your fingers to roll one end of each strip pointy.
If you want to make sure all your antlers are of the same size, you can cut these antler pieces all at the same time and keep them covered as you shape each one. That way, you can make sure they are all of the same length.

Roll the pointed ends of the strips into coils as shown below:

Let the antlers set for a few minutes (you can shape the remaining antlers while waiting) and then lift them and position them above the reindeer's face. Apply a coat of shortening before putting the antlers on. Letting the antlers set for a few minutes helps in holding the shape as you lift them to position on the reindeer's face.

Next, cut two smaller strips of chocolate fondant, roll one end of each strip pointy and coil them up slightly before attaching them to the reindeer.

Repeat the process for another set of chocolate strips. This time, position them on the top part of the antlers.

Completed reindeer cupcakes topper

Assembling the reindeer cupcakes

Once reindeer toppers are done, attach them to your cupcakes. Apply a layer of buttercream to your cupcakes so that the toppers stay in place on the cupcakes.