Preheat the oven to 350 degrees then line two separate baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a bowl of a stand mixer, add in chocolate cake mix, melted butter, and the 2 room temperature eggs. Mix all the ingredients together on low speed until they are fully combined.
15 oz box chocolate cake mix, 1/3 cup unsalted butter, 2 eggs
Make 1 1/2 tablespoon sized balls of dough. Place the balls of dough onto the parchment lined baking sheets.
Place the cookies into the preheated oven and bake for 10- 12 minutes. The tops of the cookies should be set.
Once the cookies are done baking, let them cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack. Let the cookies cool completely.
Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave in 30 second increments stirring between each one.
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Working in batches so the chocolate doesn’t harden, add about 1/2 of a tablespoon of the melted chocolate onto the cooled cookies. Then add the toppings onto the wet chocolate. Pretzels for the antlers, nilla wafers, and little eyeballs.
Next add a little dot of chocolate onto the nilla wafer and place a red or brown m&m on top of the dot. Move on to the next batch of reindeer by repeating the previous step.
24 pieces mixed red and brown M&Ms
Let the chocolate set. It should only take about 10 minutes then serve!
Notes
Bake the cookies before you intend to decorate them so they are cooled and ready to go.If chocolate hardens while you are still decorating simply place it back in the microwave for a 20 seconds until workable again.Store any leftover reindeer cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to three days or the cookies begins to harden.