Chocolate Reindeer Cupcakes

This Christmas if you are going to decorate cupcakes, you might as well make them adorably cute, decadently rich, and amazingly good like these Chocolate Reindeer Cupcakes.
This post is sponsored by SharkNinja.

Rudolph with his chocolate peanut butter cup head, shiny red candy nose, candy cane antlers, and malted milk ball hooves never looked so sweet.

Each reindeer body is made from the very best chocolate cupcake you’ll ever taste and is topped with a big swirl of chocolate ganache frosting.

As soon as these festive desserts were decorated and pictures were snapped, they had to be boxed up and removed from my house so that I wouldn’t eat each and every one of them. They found a nice home with my neighbors.

To make the very best chocolate cupcakes, you’ll need to blend your favorite semi-sweet chocolate with some good quality Dutch processed cocoa powder and some of your favorite coffee, which will really intensify the chocolate flavor.

I made my coffee in the new Ninja Coffee Bar. This sleek and modern looking coffee maker allowed me to create just the right brew of coffee for this recipe.

In October, I shared with you my story of meeting Sofia Vergara at Ninja’s press event in New York City and showed you how to make Flourless Chocolate Cakes decorated like black cats for Halloween using coffee brewed in my new Ninja Coffee Bar.

I was introduced to this new coffee maker at the event and was incredibly impressed with it’s functionality.

In one beautifully designed machine you are able to brew a single cup, a travel mug, or a carafe of coffee and can choose to make a classic brew, a rich brew, an iced coffee, or a super concentrated specialty brew. This allows you to create coffee-house style drinks in your own home.

For this chocolate cupcake recipe, I used a classic brew so that the cupcakes would be intensely chocolate with just a slight hint of coffee flavor. If you would like a more pronounced coffee flavor, then you’d want to use the rich brew setting. For a really strong mocha flavor choose the specialty brew setting to make a few servings of super concentrated coffee.

Any way you make these chocolate reindeer cupcakes, they are to die for. If you love chocolate, these cupcakes are for you.

They are decadently rich though, so you’ll need a nice cup of coffee to go with them. Treat yourself to an iced coffee, or a Sweet Sofiaccino, Cinnamon Graham Latte, Cardamom Vanilla Latte, or Coco-Mocho Crunch Ninjaccino. You can find recipes for these specialty drinks and more on the Ninja Coffee Bar website. 

Once you get your coffee brewed and your cupcakes made you can quickly and easily decorate them.

It doesn’t take much time at all to transform an ordinary chocolate cupcake into Rudolph.

Print

Ultimate Chocolate Reindeer Cupcakes

Prep Time

1 hr

Cook Time

25 mins

Total Time

1 hr 25 mins

 

Decadently rich chocolate cupcakes topped with chocolate ganache frosting decorated to look like adorably cute reindeer for Christmas.

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: christmas desserts, reindeer cupcakes

Servings: 12

Author: Beth Jackson Klosterboer

Ingredients

Cupcakes: recipe adapted from Cook’s Illustrated

• 3 ounces semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate finely chopped
• 1 ounce 1/3 cup Dutch-processed cocoa
• 3/4 cup hot coffee
• 6 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup 4 1/8 ounce bread flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Chocolate Ganache frosting:

• 12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate finely chopped
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream

Decorations:

• 2 ounces melted milk chocolate or light cocoa candy melts
• 12 chocolate peanut butter cups
• 12 large red candies candy melt wafers or mega sized candy coated chocolates
• 24 candy eyes 1/2 inch round
• 24 small malted milk balls
• 24 small candy canes

Instructions

Cupcakes:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (325 for dark cupcake pans)
2. Line a cupcake pan with 12 wrappers.
3. Pour finely chopped chocolate and cocoa powder into a large mixing bowl.
   
   
4. Add hot coffee and stir until chocolate melts.
5. Place in the refrigerator to cool for about 20 minutes.
6. Once cooled, whisk in oil, eggs, white vinegar, and vanilla extract.
7. In a separate bowl whisk together the sugar, flour, baking soda, and salt.
8. Add it to the chocolate bowl and whisk until smooth.
9. Equally divide batter among 12 cupcake wrappers.
10. Bake the cupcakes for 20-22 minutes until they are set around the edges and puffed in the middle.
11. Allow them to cool completely.

Chocolate ganache frosting:

1. Place chopped chocolate in the bowl of a food processor.
   
   
2. Pulse until chocolate is fine crumbs.
3. Heat heavy whipping cream in a small saucepan over medium heat.
4. Stir often until it just comes to a boil.
5. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate, put lid on the food processor bowl, and let sit for 2-3 minutes.
6. Pulse for 3 seconds.
7. Remove lid and scrape down the sides and bottom of the food processor bowl.
8. Return lid and pulse for 5 more seconds until smooth.
9. Pour into a mixing bowl and allow to cool for about an hour.
10. Beat using an electric mixer until fluffy.
11. Pipe in big swirls over cooled cupcakes.

Decorations:

1. Use melted chocolate to attach two jumbo candy eyes and a red nose to each peanut butter cup.
   
   
2. Attach to the top of the frosted cupcake.
   
   
3. Attach two small malted milk balls to the cupcakes just above the wrappers and on either side of the peanut butter cup.
4. Insert two candy canes into the frosting behind the peanut butter cups to create antlers.

GIVEAWAY

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You must be 18 years or older and reside in the U.S.A to enter. Void where prohibited by law.

I was compensated and given a free Ninja Coffee Bar in exchange for creating this festive holiday recipe to share with you. All the opinions expressed here are my own.

For more information about the Ninja Coffee Bar brewer and additional SharkNinja products, please visit www.ninjacoffeebar.com; you can also learn more at Facebook.com/NinjaCoffeeBar and @NinjaCoffeeBar on Twitter.

You can purchase a Ninja Coffee Bar along with other products needed to create these Chocolate Reindeer Cupcakes from Amazon.com (affiliate link)

Be sure to check out all my fun Christmas Recipes!

If you like these Chocolate Reindeer Cupcakes, you might also like these adorable Reindeer treats.