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Celebrate Thanksgiving with these adorable little turkey cupcakes! Peanut butter cookie bodies and candy feathers mean you can have turkey for dessert, too. 😉
I love seasonal treats! There’s something so fun about having a theme to work with and creating a treat that pulls everything together. Right now, my Snowball Elf Cupcakes are in stores on the back of every bag of Hershey’s Candy Cane Kisses.
I had so much fun making those last year, I wanted to create something similar for Thanksgiving. Obviously, my mind went to turkeys, so I played around with a few ideas and came up with these Turkey Cupcakes!
The turkey faces and bodies might look familiar, since they are essentially the same thing I used to make Turkey Treats a couple weeks ago. They are made with a Nutter Butter cookie, some candy eyes and colored decorating gel. Instead of dipping them in chocolate, I just shoved them down into the chocolate frosting
I wanted to use something more dramatic and different than candy corn for the turkey feathers. I came up with the idea of using candy melts to make feathers after seeing some beautiful fall leaves made from melting candy.
Be sure to use candy melts and not regular chocolate chips for these turkey cupcakes! If you use regular chocolate, it will get soft and droopy in a warm room. Candy melts firm up and hold their shape much better.
Since the turkey cupcakes are pretty whimsical, I knew they didn’t need to be perfect. It was actually quite easy to make them!
Line a sheet pan with wax paper and lay the cookies out for quick and easy decorating. After each turkey face is decorated with eyes, a beak and a waddle (using the piping gel) then set them aside to harden.
Use a second sheet pan lined with wax paper to pipe out all the turkey tails as described in the recipe card below. Be sure to cool them completely before gently removing from the pan. Press your decorations into the chocolate frosted cupcakes to create your own unique Easy Turkey Cupcakes!
Easy Turkey Cupcakes
Ingredients
- Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting make your own, or pick some up at the grocery store bakery
- Nutter Butter cookies
- Candy eyes
- Red and orange decorating gel
- Candy melts in your favorite fall colors orange, brown, red, yellow- it's your choice
Instructions
- Nutter Butter cookies, Candy eyes, Red and orange decorating gelTo make the turkey bodies and faces, simply attach candy eyes with a dab of frosting and then pipe on a beak and waddle with the decorating gel. Set aside until ready to assemble the cupcakes.
- Candy melts in your favorite fall colorsFor the feathers, melt the candy melts according to the package directions and then place in a piping bag or a plastic baggie and snip off the end. Pipe the melted candy onto a sheet pan lined with wax paper. Use a sweeping motion to create loops and lines of candy that meet at the bottom.
- Place the sheet in the refrigerator to set quickly. After they are set, gently remove from the wax paper with a spatula.
- Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frostingPress the turkey body down into the frosting of a cupcake, and then gently place two or three tail feathers behind it. Every turkey will be unique and adorable!
Notes
If you think these Turkey Cupcakes are cute, check out my Snowball Elf Cupcakes for Christmas.
- Biscoff Cookie Crust - September 21, 2023
- Biscoff Brownies - September 16, 2023
- Biscoff Cheesecake - September 5, 2023
Marjie says
So cute! Glad you chose the cupcakes!! I found this when looking at a friend’s Pinterest and YAY it was YOURS. They are absolutely adorable.
Nicole Burkholder says
Thanks! I think they turned out well. I’m going to make them again to put on the table for Thanksgiving, I think. 🙂