Christmas Reindeer Cupcakes by Abigail LaLonde

Ingredients:

• 9 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

• 3/4 cup white sugar

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 2 eggs

• 1 1/2 cups sifted self-rising flour

• 1/2 cup milk

Frosting:

• 1 cup confectioners' sugar

• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, room temperature

• 1 tablespoon milk

• 1 drop brown food coloring

Decoration:

• 6 vanilla wafer cookies

• 12 red jelly beans

• 24 candy eyeballs

• 24 Tootsie Rolls

• 24 pretzels

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin or line cups with paper liners.

2. Combine 9 tablespoons butter, white sugar, and vanilla extract in a large bowl; beat with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy. Add eggs one at a time and beat until well combined. Fold in half the flour and 1/4 cup milk and stir to combine. Repeat with remaining flour and milk. Spoon batter into the prepared muffin cups, filling each 3/4 full.

3. Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, for about 18 minutes.

4. Remove tin from oven and cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Remove cupcakes from the tin and let them cool completely (about an hour) on a wire rack before decorating.

5. Combine confectioners' sugar, 1 tablespoon butter, and 1 tablespoon milk in a large bowl; beat with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy. Thin frosting with a little milk or water if necessary. Add food coloring and stir until frosting is uniformly brown. Add food coloring slowly until frosting is the color you like.

6. Spread a thin layer of frosting on top of each cupcake. Break vanilla cookies in half and place a cookie half on each cupcake as a mouth. Use a bit of frosting to "glue" a jelly bean onto the cookie for Rudolph's red nose. Stick 2 candy eyeballs into each cupcake. Break off a piece from each pretzel so they look like antlers and stick 2 into the top of each cupcake. Shape Tootsie Rolls into ears and stick 2 into the sides of each cupcake.