Today was Christmas cupcake day and a good day it was too!  These cute little guys come from Karen Tack and Alan Richardson’s “What’s New, Cupcake?” cookbook which is awesome!  I highly recommend it!  Mine are a little different than theirs as I used pretzels for antlers in order to make it a little easier.  Bob was in charge of breaking the pretzels for me and he did a great job.  I’m not going to put all the instructions for them here as I think you can pretty much tell from the picture how they are put together.  I tried out a new cupcake recipe which I got from my new “Taste of Home Cookies and More!” magazine that I bought at the grocery store so here is that recipe for you.

Chocolate Cupcakes:

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup buttermilk

1  Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in egg and vanilla.  Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt;  gradually add to creamed mixture alternating with water and buttermilk, beating well after each addition.

2  Fill paper lined muffin cups 2/3 full.  Bake at 375 for 12 – 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.  Cool 10 minutes before removing from pan.