Preheat oven to 170 °Celsius.

Beat butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

In a separate bowl, sift flour, salt and baking powder. Fold in the sifted ingredients into the creamed mixture alternately with milk, starting and ending with flour.

Pour batter into baking cups 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 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.

Next, tint some white fondant with brown food coloring for the reindeer's face. 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 on the cupcakes, so do keep that in mind.

Attach the brown circle cutout onto the white cutout. Position the face towards the lower end of the white cutout.

Roll out some red fondant. 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.

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.

Attach the white balls onto the reindeer's face with shortening.

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.

Apply some fondant glue and drop the tiny black balls into the holes to complete 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.

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

Fill 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 of strips for the main part of the antlers on each cupcake. 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.

Let the antlers set for a few minutes (you can shape the remaining antlers while waiting) and then lift 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.

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.

After that, carefully lift the reindeer cupcake toppers and place them onto your prepared cupcakes to complete the reindeer cupcakes.