Turkey Cupcakes {Tutorial}

It's that time of year again .. gobble gobble 'til you wobble!!

Here is a quick and fun way to decorate your cupcakes for your Thanksgiving dessert table or to bring to your child's school party (Oh, I miss those parties, my kids are now 12 and 14 so no more school parties, but they still love special treats at home).

About two weeks ago I taught a cupcake decorating class and as part of the I wanted to demonstrate how to use other foods, candies, etc. to assist in your cupcake decorating. I adapted these Turkey Cupcakes from Betty Crocker.

The cupcakes were made with boxed yellow cake, Betty Crocker Rich & Creamy Chocolate Frosting, Hershey Kisses Candy, and the turkey feathers were made from Hershey's Milk Chocolate Chips, Reese's Peanut Butter Chips and Wilton Candy Melts. See below how to make the turkey feathers and how to assemble the turkey cupcakes.

For the Cupcakes, you will need:
Ingredients:

• 1 box of Yellow Cake Mix
• 1 can of Chocolate Frosting
• Hershey Kisses
• Chocolate Candy Turkey Feathers (see how to below)

Directions:
Bake cupcakes according to the package directions. For tasty cupcakes, don't over bake! Follow the directions below on to assemble the Turkey Cupcakes.

For the Chocolate Candy Turkey Feathers, you will need:
Ingredients:

• Wax paper
• Ziploc sandwich bag (or pastry bag)
• Hershey's Milk Chocolate Chips
• Reese's Peanut Butter Chips
• White paper (such as printer paper)
• Wilton White Chocolate Melts*
• Orange food coloring*

Note: You may use Orange colored White Chocolate Melts but I was looking for a lighter orange color so I used food coloring to make them orange color I preferred. (add food coloring to the white chocolate melts immediately after melting, stir until color is incorporated).

Hand draw a feather template where the feather is 3 inches high by 2.5 wide. Next, hand draw a small feather template that is 2.5inches high by 2 inches wide. Here's a sample (where I have the large and small feathers drawn near each other)


Place approximately 1/2 cup of peanut butter chips in a microwave safe bowl. Micorwave until just melted (30-40 seconds. time will vary depending on your microwave.)

Spoon the melted peanut butter chips into a Ziploc sandwich size bag. Close the bag (remove as much air as you can before closing).
Cut a very small opening at the tip of the bag ...Place a sheet of wax paper over your feather template. And now begin to pipe the feathers following your template (use the SMALLER template for the PB feathers). After you've completed the first feather, slide your wax paper over template just enough so that you can pipe another feather. Continue to make 24 feathers (for 24 cupcakes). You will do the same for the Orange White Chocolate Feathers by piping over the smaller feather template. And the repeat the steps for the Milk Chocolate Feathers by using the LARGER feather template.

The photos below show you how to pipe using the smaller feather template:



Leave feathers on wax paper to harden (maybe 30 minutes). You can carefully place them in the fridge if you want them to harden faster. Once they have hardened, carefully remove them from the wax paper.Repeat the above for the Orange White Chocolate Feathers and for the Milk Chocolate Feathers (Use the LARGER template for the Milk Chocolate Feathers).
Note: We loved just eating the PB feathers so you may want to make a few extras for munching.
And Just for fun my daughter made a little chocolate turkey :)

To assemble Turkey Cupcakes:

Frost the cupcake with a generous amount of chocolate frosting:
Insert Milk Chocolate Feather into the frosted cupcake as such:
Insert Orange White Chocolate Feather:
(Do the same for the Peanut Butter Feather - Sorry I don't have a photo for that )

Place Hershey Kiss in front of the feathers:

Ta, Da!! ... Turkey Cupcakes!!
Gobble, Gobble and Happy Thanksgiving!