Name: Reindeer Cupcakes
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 155 min
Ingredients: 175 g castor sugar; 100 g butter; 2 eggs; 190 g self-raising flour; 1 tsp vanilla essence; ½ tsp baking powder; 140 ml milk; ¼ tsp a pinch salt; Buttercream; Fondant; Food Coloring; Shortening / Fondant Glue

Jump to Recipe

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!

4 cupcakes with reindeer face decoration. — Decorated Reindeer Cupcakes for Christmas

I made these reindeer cupcakes with the Rudolph 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 Rudolph'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
Notes
Like this festive cupcakes tutorial? Here are my other posts you might want to check out:
Recipe (Printable)

How to Make

Ingredients

Cupcakes - I used my vanilla cupcake recipe for the cupcakes (see the recipe card below) and baked them in medium-sized muffin cups. The recipe yielded me 20 cupcakes.
Buttercream - I used a thin coat of vanilla buttercream on my cupcakes before attaching 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.
Shortening / Fondant Glue - I used shortening as the 'glue' in this project, except for the eyes which were attached using this glue.

Decorating Tools

Fondant extruder tool - I used this tool to pipe out strips of dark brown for Rudolph'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 Rudolph's eyes to position his black eyes.

Baking the cupcakes and making the buttercream

Preheat oven to 170 °Celsius. Beat butter and sugar till light and fluffy with a hand mixer or stand mixer. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
In a separate bowl, sift the self raising flour, salt and baking powder. Fold in the sifted ingredients into the creamed mixture alternately with milk, starting and ending with flour.
Fold in the vanilla extract and give the batter a good mix.
Pour batter into cupcake liners arranged in a cupcake pan or muffin tin until they are about two thirds full.
Bake the cupcakes for 15 to 20 minutes (depending on the size of the casing you use) or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcakes comes out without any wet batter sticking to it.
Remove the cupcakes from oven and let them cool completely to room temperature on a cooling rack before leveling them (if they are domed). Set aside while you complete the reindeer cupcakes toppers.
To make the buttercream, measure the butter and powdered sugar into a large bowl. Cream until smooth and fluffy. Add vanilla extract and continue beating until smooth. If you wish to make chocolate buttercream, add some cocoa powder to the buttercream and beat until smooth. Get the full recipe for the buttercream recipe here.

Making the fondant covering for the cupcakes

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.

Making the 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 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.
Another option would be to use red m&m for the red nose.

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 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 Rudolph'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.
If you don't want to make the fondant eyes, you can also use candy eyes for the reindeers.

The reindeer 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 fondant 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.

How to assemble the cupcakes

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

A cupcake covered in flat buttercream icing.

After that, carefully lift the reindeer cupcake toppers and place them onto the top of each cupcake to complete the cutest Christmas cupcakes.

4 cupcakes with reindeer face deco. — Christmas Reindeer Cupcakes - Adorable Reindeer Cupcakes for your holiday party

Notes

Can you use chocolate frosting to cover the cupcakes instead of vanilla extract flavored buttercream?

Yes, you can. You can use chocolate buttercream or even chocolate fudge frosting. In fact, you can use any other flavored buttercream to cover your cupcakes.

Can you make chocolate cupcakes instead of vanilla cupcakes to make these cute cupcakes?

Yes, you can. You can use my chocolate cupcakes recipe (with chocolate chips) to make chocolate reindeer cupcakes.

Fun options for the reindeer eyes, nose and antlers

The reindeer cupcake toppers in this tutorial are made and decorated entirely in fondant. Here are some fun and quick options for you:

Eyes - use candy eyes (candy eyeballs) that are readily sold in baking aisle in your local grocery store or supermarket or cake decorating supplies shop.
Nose - you can replace the red fondant cut out with red m&m candy.
Antlers - break mini pretzels into half, dip them in melted chocolate (or even black candy melts) to make chocolate reindeer antlers for the Rudolph cupcakes.

What can you do with these adorable Rudolph cupcakes?

These cupcakes are perfect for the holiday season. You can follow the tutorial on this page to make your own sweet reindeer cupcakes for your Christmas party.

Alternatively, you can make them as gifts or even as holiday treat for your children classroom parties.

Like this festive cupcakes tutorial? Here are my other posts you might want to check out:

Recipe (Printable)

Here is the full printable version of the reindeer cupcakes recipe and decorating guide:

Reindeer Cupcakes

Learn how to make these cute reindeer cupcakes for Christmas with my easy to follow, step by step tutorial. These make great gifts too!

5 from 22 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Reindeer Cupcakes

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Decorating time: 2 hours

Total Time: 2 hours 35 minutes

Yield: 20 cupcakes

Author: Priya Maha