The easiest cookies you will ever make that are cute to boot! These Reindeer Cake Mix Cookies start out with, you guessed it, cake mix! A few simple ingredients along with some fun embellishments make these Christmas Reindeer Cookies a must-have on your cookie board this year!
Cute Christmas cookies just taste better, don’t you agree? These cookies are the cutest so you know they are delicious! Chocolate cake mix, chocolate morsels, and a melted chocolate topping do not leave anything to chance!
Welcome to the 25 Days of Christmas Series here at That’s What Che Said!
I am your host and we will have a great holiday season together making, baking, eating, and drinking!
We have tons of Cricut and Silhouette projects as well as cookie recipes and decor ideas coming up and I hope you will join me. Add your email to my 25 days of Christmas list to be notified first for all new freebies and projects!
MORE COOKIES YOU MAY LOVE:
You do not need to chill the dough so these chocolate cookies whip up quickly and you should decorate while the chocolate is melted so there is no extra waiting around besides allowing the cookies to cool to the touch once baked.
Reindeer Cake Mix Cookies Ingredients
- Chocolate Cake Mix – You can use any chocolate cake mix that you love! Today I used Betty Crocker Dark Chocolate Fudge. The Cake mix already contains the all-purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar needed to create a cookie dough!
- Butter – Use unsalted butter. You can melt it on the stovetop or microwave. If using the microwave, I find the defrost setting works the best and the butter will not spatter! You can substitute the butter for vegetable oil if you are in a pinch or don’t want dairy. (equal parts)
- Eggs – It’s best to use room-temperature eggs but cold will work too! I used Grade A Large eggs
- Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips – These offer some added surprise to the cookies! You can use morsels or baking bits for this since they are mixed right into the dough!
- Ghiradelli Melting Wafers – You can find these in almost all grocery stores these days. They are normally on the top shelf. Don’t skimp, these are amazing and worth it!
- M&M’s – the fun part! You will need both brown and red so a regular old bag of M&M’s will do! brown for the reindeer and red m&m for Rudolph of course!
- Vanilla Wafers Cookies – I have found that the brand name Nilla Wafers have a higher probability of coming out of the box whole vs the store brand version of these cookies. You will want whole cookies!
- Candy Eyes – These used to be really hard to find but now you can find them almost anywhere. Most all groceries stores have these in the baking aisle near the icings and food colorings. If you can’t find them, white and black icing will work, white icing with mini chocolate chips or merely just chocolate chips will work! Be flexible!
You can leave these delicious Christmas cookies for Santa on Christmas eve. Maybe even use one of these Santa plates or this Santa tray! These are great for neighbor gifts, bus drivers or coaches to show them you are thinking of them this holiday season.
Don’t Miss Out!
Get all my delicious email recipes straight to your inbox!
How to Make Reindeer Cake Mix Cookies
Start off by mixing the cake mix, butter and eggs using a stand mixer, hand mixer or spatula in a bowl.
Fold in the chocolate chips.
Using a cookie scoop, make cookie balls and place them on a lined baking sheet. You can use parchment paper or a silicone baking liner. Parchment is my favorite because it’s such easy cleanup!
A note about cookie scoops. Some are sized in ounces and some in tablespoons. For reference, 2 tablespoons are equal to 1 ounce. I am using a 1.5 tablespoon scoop today.
Bake the cookies on the center rack of your oven at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. The tops should be set but still soft.
Next, melt the melting wafers in the microwave. I followed the package instructions and use a microwave-safe bowl. Next, you can spoon some chocolate onto the cookies and use an offset spatula or the back of a spoon to spread or you can simply dip the tops of the cookies in the chocolate. Whichever you prefer!
Work in small batches! You don’t want the chocolate topping to set before you can add all the fun reindeer embellishments!
Here comes the fun part, creating our reindeer! First, start out by placing two small twist pretzels as the antlers. If you don’t have the small ones, you can use the large ones and just cut them in half. Use one half for each antler.
Next, add the reindeer snout. For that we will use a vanilla wafer.
Then, our reindeer cookies need a way to see to pull the sleigh so we will add some of the candy eyes.
No reindeer is complete without a nose so here is where we will add our red and brown M&M candies for Dasher and Dancer and Rudolph, the whole gang! use a dab of the melted chocolate to stick the M&M candy onto the vanilla wafer.
Now we have a delicious cookie that is also totally festive and adorable! We have a cookie swap this weekend in my neighborhood and I plan to make 6 dozen of these bad boys to take with me. Who wouldn’t love them?
Reindeer Chocolate Cake Mix Cookies Recipe
Reindeer Cake Mix Cookies
Equipment
- Stand Mixer - with flat beater attachment
- cookie dough scoop - 1 ½ tablespoon
Ingredients
- 15 ounce box chocolate cake mix, I used Betty Crocker Dark Chocolate Fudge
- 1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
- 2 eggs, room temperature
- 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
- 10 ounce package Ghirardelli milk chocolate melting wafers
- 24 pieces mixed red and brown M&M’s
- 48 pieces candy eyeballs
- 48 pieces mini pretzels
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350℉. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the flat beater attachment, add the chocolate cake mix, melted butter, and eggs and beat on low until mixed. You can alternatively mix everything with a rubber spatula if you do not have a mixer.15 ounce box chocolate cake mix, 1/3 cup unsalted butter, 2 eggs
- Fold in the semisweet chocolate chips using a spatula.3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
- Use a small cookie scoop or a spoon to drop 1 ½ tablespoon sized balls onto the lined baking sheets. Space them a few inches apart to leave room for the cookies to spread.
- Bake at 350℉ for 10-12 minutes, until the tops are set and it reaches desired doneness.
- Allow the cookies to cool on the pan a few minutes before transferring the cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Using a microwave safe bowl, melt the chocolate melting wafers in the microwave and then add about half a tablespoon of melted chocolate and carefully cover the tops of each cookie or alternately dunk the tops of the cookie in the melted chocolate. Work in small batches so that the chocolate does not dry before decorating.10 ounce package Ghirardelli milk chocolate melting wafers
- Add the pretzels, nilla wafers, and eyeballs to create a reindeer. Then dab a little chocolate on top of the nilla wafer to place a red or brown M&M on for the nose. Let the chocolate set for 10 minutes before serving.48 pieces candy eyeballs, 48 pieces mini pretzels, 24 pieces mixed red and brown M&M’s
Notes
Nutrition Estimate
Comments & Reviews
Tavette says
These reindeer are too cute. QUESTION: Did you use regular size Vanilla Wafers or the mini ones?
Thanks.
Tavette – S. Florida
Cheryl Spangenberg says
Hi Tavette! I used regular-sized ones!