Rudolph the Red Nosed Black Bear

Hey there, it's Marquette! I'm back, one bridal shower, one wedding shoot, one Fourth of July Parade, a continuing visit from my sister in Mississippi and not enough naps later. We're desperately trying to catch up on all the WONDERFUL submissions we've been sent. We have some really great ones to show you. We'll start with this one from Melinda, the reindeer cupcakes. 

The Original Pin

By With Sprinkles on Top:  http://www.withsprinklesontop.net/?p=1156

Aren't those great?! Melinda saw these and decided to give them a try; she says, "I was making these adorable reindeer cupcakes for my daughter's school Christmas party, and of course my didn't turn out quite like the picture. They ended up looking like little black bears."

The Pinstrosity

But...they are very cute little black bears. My husband saw Melinda's photo first before knowing what the original idea even was and said, "That's not a Pinstrosity! She made those look just like black bears! That's so cute!" So...the cute part was nailed, but they do look like black bears. So lets see what we can do to get a reindeer rather than a black bear (unless you're wanting the black bear...because they are pretty cute). 

My sister is here sitting with me and we're thinking that the difference between the black bears and the reindeer is all in the placement of the candies/pretzels. 

• For the noses, the candies in the original pin are placed more in the center of the cookie. I think this is one of the main things that gave bears rather than deer. Centralized noses, that's wear it's at. 
• The placement of the pretzel antlers might make a difference to in how the bear/deer look. If the pretzels are placed further around on the cupcake (more to the sides) rather than straight on top they might look a little more like antlers and less like ears. 
• Then, if you wanted to get really picky, the eyes might have something to do with it, but not a lot. I love the ingenuity of using the chocolate chips as the eyes when frosting is not available, but if you do want the same eye look, making smaller pupils with chocolate (or maybe a sprinkle) will help. 

But again...the cupcakes were darling...just not exactly how Melinda wanted them to turn out. Just a few candy placement tweaks and I think the bears will morph into reindeer.