This is a cute little Turkey Cupcake with a Cookie place-card. He is sure to make Thanksgiving special for all of your guests this year if you are willing to take the time to make him.

The inspiration for him came from my Cupcake Book of Brilliance which I’ve mentioned before. I changed some of the design and ingredients, and learned some helpful tips that weren’t in the book.

I’m really more of a cake decorator, than a cake baker. I’m always so anxious to get to the decorating part, that I rarely have the patience to bake from scratch. Kind of that Semi-Homemade approach.

For these cute little Turkey cupcakes, I chose a boxed Spice Cake mix and a pre-made Coconut Pecan frosting… you know…the kind that you only see on top of German Chocolate Cake?

I’m not quite sure why everyone reserves this stuff for German Chocolate Cake only.  It’s so delicious!

It should be included in all kinds of recipes.

Hey, there’s a thought… See how many new and amazing desserts you can come up with using Coconut Pecan Frosting. Imagine it on top of a Lemon Cake, Carrot Cake… Brownies… Mmmmmmmmm.

Ok.. let’s get back to the Turkeys.

Each turkey needs one Large cupcake, and one Mini cupcake. A standard cupcake is the size in between these two, and not a size used in this recipe. Set your regular cupcake pan aside and go for Large and Mini. One box of mix and just less than two tubs of frosting will make twelve turkeys.  That’s twelve Large cupcakes and twelve Mini cupcakes altogether.

A shopping list of all the ingredients you’ll need is included at the bottom of this post. So put away your pencils and just enjoy the step by step journey from plain sad little muffin to Thanksgiving Turkey Cupcake Show-Stopper.

You can get your list together at the end.

After the cupcakes are baked and completely cooled it’s time to frost ALL OF THEM!

My recommendation is that you begin these decorating steps at least two days prior to Thanksgiving.

Because these cupcakes are going to sit out on display as place markers or a centerpiece for your feast, they need a couple of days to set up, so as not to slide into an oozy mess on your Dining Table. More about that sad, sad story in a bit.

And don’t worry… these decorated cupcakes taste even better after a couple of days than they do after they’re fist made. Just that little bit of time seems to give the flavors a chance to develop, mingle, and marry into something TOTALLY YUMMY!

The last step to do on the Large cupcakes, prior to Thanksgiving day, is to roll their edges in chocolate sprinkles.

Now it’s on to the Turkey faces. Take one single Candy Corn and press it into a Mini cupcake as the beak. Instead of pressing it right into the center of the cake, scoot it closer to the edge, making that the bottom part of the Turkey head.

The next thing you need is a good ol’ lunch snack to make your gizzard.

The Fruit by the Foot packs I found came already sliced into three strands.  All I had to do was use a sharp knife to round the bottoms and cut the gizzards to size. When cutting the gizzards, it’s best to cut them at an angle. The pointed, angled tip that is created, is easier to discretely wrap up around the beak, than a blunt square end.

The gizzards should be long enough to slightly hang down past the bottom of your Mini cupcakes.

This little guy is really starting to look like a Turkey.

In addition to the two tubs of Coconut Pecan Frosting, you’ll also need one tub of dark chocolate frosting.  You won’t use the whole tub.  In fact I didn’t even use the entire bag worth shown in this picture.

Not only is this chocolate frosting used on your eyes and place cards, it is also the unseen glue that holds many of your pieces together. More about that later.

Using your piping bag of Dark Chocolate frosting, pipe on two little eyes. Don’t worry if you have a hard time getting your eyes flat. When using a piping bag you’ll end up having an unavoidable spike of frosting where the dollop doesn’t want to let go of the frosting in the bag. Just dip the tip of your finger under a water faucet and shake the excess water off. Dab your barely wet finger gently onto the little frosting eye, and then that rebellious frosting spike will smooth right out.

Now this Turkey face looks pretty good, but just a little bit soul-less don’t you think?

That’s where these come in. Just your every day little tiny ball-shaped sprinkles. Their official name is Nonpareils.  You can find them in any grocery store baking aisle if you don’t already have some in your cupboards.

Pour a few out into a bowl. You’re only going to use the white ones. Press your barely wet, now slightly sticky, eye smoothing finger onto a white sprinkle to pick it up, and then place it off center in a turkey eye.

There’s that turkey soul!

The wonder. The sparkle. The life. The aspirations to grow up and become Thanksgiving Dinner… or in this case… Desert!

It’s best if you place the white sprinkles off to one side, and make it the same side on each eye. Otherwise you’ll end up with a cross-eyed Turkey. Then again… if it’s the Turkey which will boast the Place-Card name “Uncle”, cross-eyed and crazy might be Just Right!

The last step in creating your cute little Turkey heads is to place on the hair… or probably what should really be called the Head Feathers.

You can just lay a few sprinkles on there in a pile, but they tend to all fall down flat. I prefer to search for the longest sprinkles I can find in the tub, and place each one individually into the frosting, standing on end.

It just looks so cute that way.

Changing the position of the white sprinkles in the eyes, and the amount and placement of the sprinkles for hair, will give each of your Turkeys a bit of their own character.

Repeat the above steps until you have twelve Turkey bodies and twelve Turkey heads, or however many you’re going to need for your Turkey Day Feast.

My advice at this point is to keep all of the decorated heads and bodies disassembled.  Both the Mini and the Large decorated cupcakes should be placed in covered Tupperware containers and stored in a cool dry place where they won’t be bothered for at least two days.

Here is a Turkey that did NOT sit for two days.

I made this little guy (and a few others) only one hour prior to taking this picture.

This is not the site you want your guests stumbling upon as they show up for Thanksgiving Dinner!

Can you imagine?!

You set your perfect looking Turkey cupcakes out on the table with PRIDE, and head back to the kitchen to mash the mashed potatoes, finish the vegetable plate, and put the punch together. Your guests begin to arrive and after you’ve greeted them and subliminally encouraged them in towards the BEAUTIFUL dining room table where your Turkey Cupcakes are, you head back to the kitchen and wait for the ooohs and ahhhhs to start pouring in.

But… before you hear any shrieks of glee as family members discover their names ever so cleverly placed next to an adorable little cupcake that looks like a Turkey, you feel a tiny little tug on the back of your pant leg, and you know right away who it is.

It’s your three year old.

“Mommy, why are your Turkeys so sad? What’s wrong with them Mommy? What happened to them?”

You pause, alarmed, but hopeful. Hopeful that this is just one of those moments when your child has interpreted something very, very wrong.

But then you hear it… Hollering from the other room your loudmouth younger brother (who supposedly is now an adult according to his number of years on the planet, but still, nobody is buying it) yells out,

“Hey sis… what’s this thing out here, dying next to my name? Do you expect me to look at this while I try and eat Thanksgiving Dinner? Somebody get a paper towel.”

No no. This is not how any of us wants our Thanksgiving to go.

Now, many bakers and cupcake makers only show you their best work and may try to appear as though their skills are immaculate. Here at MommyTopics.com I am 100% committed to keeping it real, and in every area of life… often… things go very wrong.

But there is hope.

This experience taught me what to do, and what not to do, and now I can share both with you!

See these three little Turkeys?

The ones on the right and on the left that are melting and falling apart were made from start to finish on the day these photos were taken. The little guy in the middle was part of the practice batch I made two days prior to these photos being taken.  When I made that Turkey with the uncle sign, I made his head and body and did not attach them.  I let them sit in covered Tupperware as two separate pieces for two days. This allowed time for all the frosting to set and he also tasted better than the other two melty Turkeys.

So, my advice is to make all the heads and all the bodies, and then put them away for two days sitting just like this in containers.

I didn’t try refrigerating any of these, but I wouldn’t recommend trying it. I’d be nervous about the frosting drying out so much that it starts to crack and discolor. Cupcakes do just fine left out on counters or put away in cupboards as long as they are kept covered, cool, and dry.

On Thanksgiving morning it’s time to make your name cards. Making these early causes them to soften and lose their crispiness. They still look ok two days later, but they are not much fun to bite into. Making them the morning of is a good thing anyway because you often don’t know exactly who all is coming until the last minute.

You could leave a few extra cookies out in the kitchen to quickly write new names on as unexpected guests arrive.

Or, you could just make some extra Place-cards that say, “Turkey”. Wouldn’t that be a fitting title for those who show up unannounced.

All you do to make these sweet little cookie Place-Cards is use the same bag of Dark chocolate icing that you used for the eyes, and in your best handwriting pipe away!

You could practice first on a paper towel or parchment paper until you get the hang of it. You’ll also have plenty of extra cookies in the box for mess ups.

On Thanksgiving morning, you’ll also want to make your cookie tails. You absolutely cannot make these in advance because after two days they become so soggy they won’t stand up on your turkeys. They will just crumble when you try to pick them up.

Here is something new that I learned.

Did you know that there is something called Indian Corn? I had never noticed it before.

There is of course the Candy Corn we’re all used too, but I had never seen Indian Corn before, which is almost the same thing except that it’s bottom stripe is brown and tastes like Chocolate. You definitely want to use regular candy corn for your beak and feet, but the Indian Corn adds some great color and taste to your Turkey tails.

Lay out the Ginger Thins, and don’t worry if some of the edges are a bit crumbled. Those minor defects can be covered up by the candy or hidden on the side that is pressed into the cupcake.

From now on, your chocolate icing is going to be your glue that holds everything together.

I found that the Candy Corn and Indian Corn fit best onto the cookies if placed in a pattern of: middle of hump, between two humps, middle of hump, between two humps, middle of hump, between two humps… and that’s it. Just five pieces to each cookie, and the bottom half left bare, to press into the cupcake.

And again, making each tail different just adds individual character to each Turkey and an arrangement of colors to your table.

Next come the Marshmallows.

Caught you by surprise didn’t I?

Come on, admit it. You had no idea there were giant Marshmallows hidden on these Turkeys.

The Marshmallows are what are going to prop up your Turkey tails.

Use a sharp knife to cut them in half diagonally.

To make twelve Turkeys, you only need six Marshmallows.

Place one half of the Marshmallow on your Large cupcake like this.

Apply some of your Chocolate frosting to the round flat top of the Marshmallow.

Press a tail gently down into the cupcake and then gently back against the chocolate icing on the Marshmallow, to secure it in place. It shouldn’t stand strait up, but rather should rest at an angle.

Now, apply some more of your Chocolate frosting like a half moon on the base of your Turkey Tail.

Choose a cute little Turkey head, and press it gently at an angle down into your cupcake, and against the Chocolate icing on the tail to secure it in place.

Ta-dah! You did it! Isn’t he just the cutest?

Go on… give him a couple little Candy Corn feet. Nothing fancy… just lay them there next to him.

And now for the Pièce de résistance….. Give him a name.

This final touch is what will thrill your guests and make them feel special.

Now take them to the table and set them up.

They can go on plates, or next to plates.

They can go in the center of the table around a centerpiece or be scattered down the center of a long table if you don’t want them to mark individual places.

Or they could be displayed like this in the Kitchen or on a side table.

Wherever you choose to place them, I’m sure they will thrill your guests.

So let’s get down to the nitty gritty…

What You Need…

- 1 box Spice Cake Mix

- Large Cupcake Pan

- Mini Cupcake Pan

- 12 Large White Cupcake papers

- 12 Mini White Cupcake papers

- 2 tubs Coconut Pecan Frosting

- 1 tub Dark Chocolate Frosting

- Piping Bag or Sandwich Bag for Icing

- 1 Bag Candy Corn

- 1 Bag Indian Corn

- 1 Tub Chocolate Sprinkles

- 1 Jar Nonpareils

- 1 roll of red Fruit by the Foot

- 1 box Almond Thins

- 1 box Anna’s Ginger Thins

- 6 standard size Marshmallows

Makes 12 Turkeys

And if you’ve never purchased some of these ingredients before, and are wondering where to get them, and would rather not drive from store to store finding a couple items here and a couple items there…

I purchased every one of these ingredients at Wal-Mart.

Timing of Assembly for Best Results…

Day One:

Bake cupcakes and allow to cool completely.

Frost bodies and roll edges in Chocolate Sprinkles.

Frost faces and assemble all face details.

Set Large and Mini cupcakes aside in cool dry place, covered for two days.

Thanksgiving Morning:

Create Name Place-Cards and Tails.

Set aside in cool dry place and allow to dry and set up.

Before Guests Arrive:

Assemble Turkeys and place for display.

If you decide to make these Turkey cupcakes or some variation of them for Thanksgiving, PLEASE send me photos! I’d love to see your creativity at work.

Send photos and stories by email to: Rachymommy@mommytopics.com.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

“O give thanks unto the LORD; call upon His Name: make known His deeds among the people.”

- Psalm 105:1

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