Thanksgiving Turkey Cupcakes
These adorable Thanksgiving cupcakes are perfect to bring for your child's Thanksgiving party at school!
Servings: 24 cupcakes
Calories: 637kcal
Ingredients
Ingredients for Cupcakes
- 1 ½ C Flour
- 2 C Sugar
- 1 C Cocoa
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 1 ½ tsp Baking Powder
- ½ tsp Salt
- 4 Eggs room temp
- 1 C Whole Milk
- ⅔ C Canola Oil
- 4 tsp Vanilla
Frosting Ingredients
- ½ C unsalted butter room temp
- ⅔ C cocoa powder
- 3 C powdered sugar
- ⅓ C heavy cream
Royal Icing Ingredients
- 2 egg whites
- 1 C powder sugar
- 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
- red & orange gel food coloring
Decorating the Turkey Ingredients
- Package Fudge Stripe Cookies
- Package of Oreo Cookies
- Bag of Candy Corn
- Bag of Chocolate M&M's
Instructions
Directions for Making Cupcakes
- Place paper liners in the cupcake tins. Preheat oven to 350º.
- Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.
- In a another bowl, beat the eggs, whole milk, oil, and vanilla.
- Add the eggs, whole milk, oil, and vanilla to the bowl with the dry ingredients.
- Beat together until fully mixed for 3 minutes on medium.
- Scoop batter into cupcake lined cups until two-thirds full.
- Bake at 350º for 20-25 minutes.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes in pan.
- Take out of the cupcake pan and place on a wire rack until completely cooled, at least one hour.
How to Make the Frosting
- Beat the softened butter on its own until smooth.
- Add cocoa and powder sugar alternately with heavy cream into the creamed butter until it becomes a smooth and thick texture.
- If the frosting is too thick, add more heavy cream, if too thin, add more powder sugar.
- Scoop frosting into a large pastry bag with a large frosting tip.
- Twist the open end of the pastry bag to push frosting to the tip.
- Frost cupcakes starting from the outside edge of the cupcake working toward the center of the cupcake.
How to Make the Royal Icing
- Combine all ingredients except food coloring in a mixing bowl mixing on medium speed for 4 minutes.
- If icing is not stiff enough add 1/4 C powder sugar.
- Divide the icing into three bowls.
- To the first bowl add several drops of orange gel food coloring. Stir to blend.
- To the second bowl, add drops of red gel food coloring, mixing well to incorporate the color.
- Leave the third bowl of icing white.
- Pour each color of icing into individual frosting bags with a #5 tips. Twist the open end of the bag to push the icing to the tip.
Decorating the Cupcakes
- Refer to the picture of the cupcakes for directions.
- Lay the Fudge striped cookies strip side down.
- Lay out the candy corn on the fudge side of the cookie.
- Remove the candy corn and add some white icing for the "glue".
- Lay the candy corn with the white tip down towards the center of the cookie.
- Allow some time to dry. (up to 30 minutes, checking to make sure they are dry)
- Once dry stick the cookie into the back of the frosted cupcake to secure the "tail".
- For the turkey eyes, separate two Oreo cookies per cupcake. Keep as much filling on the half of the Oreo cookie as possible. Disregard the other Oreo half into your mouth.
- Using white icing "glue" the chocolate M&M (eye ball) to the Oreo cookie half that has the filling on it.
- Allow time for the eyeball (M&M) to dry.
- While the eyeball is drying , using the orange icing make a dot for the nose. Allow 30 seconds for the nose to dry.
- Apply the red icing for the waddle just below the nose. Allow 30 seconds for this to dry before adding the eyes to the cupcake. Check to see if dry by gently touching on top of the waddle.
- Apply a small amount of the white icing to the back of the each eye and place it on the cupcake.
- Refer to the picture of the completed cupcakes for the correct position of the eyes.
- Allow a little more time to dry before moving.
Notes
Patience is key when frosting cupcakes! Nothing can ruin a dessert faster than trying to frost a warm cupcake. Let the cupcakes cool for a minimum of one hour before frosting.
If you are in a time crunch, you can use a boxed mix and can of frosting. It will not have the same delicious flavor, but they will still be good and you'll have fun decorating them! You will need enough cake mix for 24 cupcakes and 2 cups of frosting.
Nutrition
Serving: 1 | Calories: 637kcal | Carbohydrates: 109g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 21g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 6g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 43mg | Sodium: 317mg | Potassium: 168mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 79g | Vitamin A: 223IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 39mg | Iron: 1mg