Rudolf cupcakes: little reindeer with a chocolate heart

Beat 135 g soft butter with 165 g brown sugar on medium speed for about 5 minutes until fluffy. Add 3 eggs and beat for another 2 minutes.

Stir in 75 g milk for just 30 seconds. Add 180 g flour, 120 g ground hazelnuts and 10.5 g Baking powder, weighed as precisely as possible on the spoon scale, and mix everything on medium speed for about 5 minutes to a smooth batter.

Fill the batter into a piping bag, and for this it's best to stand it in a tall measuring cup. Place brown paper baking cups in a cupcake baking tin, so the muffins stay nicely round. Preheat the oven to 200 °C fan, snip off the tip of the bag and fill each cup halfway.

Press a chocolate praline into each muffin and cover it with the remaining batter. Bake the muffins for 18 to 20 minutes in the middle of the oven. The skewer test tells you when they're done: if no batter sticks to the blade, they're perfect. Let them cool completely.

Knead a quarter of the Fondant Choco until pliable, dust the work surface and the fondant with Magic roll-out powder and roll it out 2 to 3 mm thin. Cut out 12 circles of 8 cm, place one on each muffin and gently press it on with your hand.

Knead 100 g Fondant Bright White with 100 g Fondant Choco to a light brown. Roll it out 2 to 3 mm, cut out 12 ovals of 3.5 cm and stick them onto the muffins with a little edible glue. Less glue holds better, by the way!

Using a 4 cm heart cutter, cut out 24 hearts each from dark and light fondant, and stick one light heart onto each dark heart. Pinch the round side together and trim off the excess so that a small peg remains. Use the modeling tool to make two holes in each muffin, add a little glue and insert the ears.

Stick two oval Candy eyes on each face with a dot of glue. Roll 12 balls of about 1 cm from red marzipan, roll them in red glitter sugar and place them on the snout. Use the modeling tool to draw a small smile on Rudolf.

Cut the salted pretzel sticks to about 6 cm. Melt 50 g Dark chocolate in 30-second intervals at 600 watts, making sure it does not exceed 40 °C. Brush the sticks with chocolate using a brush.

Stir cold water into the remaining chocolate, a few drops at a time, until it is thick and pipeable. Fill it into a small piping bag with an adapter and a 1.5 mm Round piping nozzle, and pipe antler tines onto the sticks. Let them set in the freezer for 15 minutes, poke two holes next to the ears and insert the antlers. Your Rudolphs are ready!