Tasty Tuesday: Reindeer Cupcakes

'Tis the season for baking and sharing! With all the Christmas parties and get-togethers happening, why not bring along a herd of adorable reindeer cupcakes? They're sure to produce many smiles and sporadic tunes of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer."

See what I mean? They're just too cute! Jake and Alyssa were so excited to share them with their friends at church for their Christmas party.  Kids love cupcakes, (Who am I kidding? Adults love cupcakes!) but start adding things like cookies and candy, and the attraction grows. 

So, what are we waiting for? Let's make some cupcakes!

The first step is pretty simple - make your cupcakes.  Following me so far? Good.

Usually, this is where I'd grab a box of cake mix and hand it and all the ingredients to Jake and Alyssa and say, "Have at it," since a mix is perfectly fine, in my opinion, for cupcakes for elementary kids. Problem was, we are out of mixes.  From scratch cupcakes it was.

While the cupcakes are baking and cooling, you can begin preparations for decorating. These are the embellishments we used, but feel free to be creative and change it up.

The assembling of the cupcakes is challenging with a 3 year old and a 6 year old.  They wanted to go, go, go! They did not seem to realize that I am only 1 person. Crazy, I know, but it's true. There is indeed only one of me. I would frost a cupcake and hand it to a child to put on the whites of the eyes and the muzzle, all while the other child is frantically bouncing around in the chair, and I begin to frost another cupcake.

We eventually did get a pretty smooth assembly line going. There were things I did not let them do, like add the ears, antlers, and mouths. I finished up those details after I shooed the kids away from the table. Zac woke up from his nap about halfway through the decorating. His presence at the table added another element to the process.

Here's the breakdown -

• fur = chocolate frosting, tapped with spatula to add texture
• ears = pieces of Tootsie Rolls (warm in the microwave for 5-10 second. Pull unto pea-sized pieces, roll into balls, and flatten into ears
• antlers = mini-twist pretzels, cut in half
• whites of eyes = mini-marshmallows, cut in half
• brown eyes = mini-M&Ms, glued with dab of frosting (used my decorator)
• muzzle= Nilla Wafer
• red nose= mini-M&M, glued with dab of frosting (used my decorator)
• mouth = brown decorating gel

Hello, little cutie! I hope your short-lived life was a pleasant one!

Make these fun cupcakes for your next get-together and make some kids (or adults!) happy. Don't forget to come back and let us know how they turned out!

Yellow Cake
Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour                             1 1/3 cups sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder                             1 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon salt                                              2 eggs
1/4 cup unsalted butter                                    1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup vegetable shortening

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and lightly flour 2 round cake pans or 1 bread loaf pan.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.  Set aside
3. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter, shortening, and sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in vanilla.
4. Alternate adding flour mixture and milk, beating well.
5. Bake 30-35 minutes for round pans or about 45 minutes for loaf pan. Let cool for 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.


Linked to Watcha Making Wednesday.