A Rafter of Turkeys

Thanksgiving 2011 

Gobble-Gobble!

My next project was one for the holidays. I was still new at the craft, therefore it took me way too long to complete what now seems a rather easy creation. I decided to go back to my "Hello, Cupcake" book for some ideas. Their Thanksgiving Toms (oddly named Larry) were a perfect treat to tote along to the family gathering, or so I thought...

Although I didn't know about it then, the writers of the book actually have an instructional video. If I only knew then what I know now...

Larry the turkey

Step 1: Shopping

My first challenge was to find the right decorations. I went to every store in town to find candy corn for the tail feathers. Apparently after Halloween these little treasures are VERY hard to find. I also had trouble finding suitable cookies to serve as tails. The book suggests a scalloped edged shortbread cookie. Of course that was impossible to find, so I settled for Pizzelles. I did not bake them; instead I purchased them at the local grocery store to make my life easier. They were perfect. I also found little candy eyes at Walmart instead of trying to dot perfect little eyeballs on all of their faces or having to make up a bunch of frosting.


Step 2: Baking
I used my mom's chocolate "wacky cake" recipe for the cupcakes. I had already bought a mini cupcake pan and had some regular ones. I used gold foil liners to make them more festive. I also chose to use peanut butter frosting for the color and the taste (it's a family favorite). 

Luckily my nephew Alex and niece Sophie came over to lend a helping hand!

Step 3: Decorating 

We did a great job frosting them and adding the jimmies. We went with gold for the hair and a mix of chocolate sprinkles and gold shavings for around the body. We had to attach the candy corn to the cookie with melted almond bark. It works like super glue. We added a candy corn nose, sliced up Swedish fish for the wattle and google eyes. The cookie needed to be pressed into the cupcake due to its size. The mini cupcake sort of rested against it. We did not prop the cookie with a marshmallow because the fan slipped through the big cupcake so easily.

I love the little candy corn feet too!

The kids were a big help with this!

Step 4: Transportation

After hours of work, I put them in cake takers and slipped them into the refrigerator. They survived the night, but not being pulled out of the fridge. My husband-to-be tried to be helpful, and this is the resulting facebook post:

"My turkeys met an unfortunate fate this morning. As we were about to leave for his family's dinner, Eric massacred them all in one fell swoop. He didn't realize that the top was not connected to the tray and they all came crashing down. I turned in time to see little decapitated heads rolling across the floor and a pile of smashed tail feathers and candy corns. It was an honest mistake, but I was still pretty bummed. :-("

It was a bit hard to swallow...
Eric just piled them all up on the tray for me, and we headed out empty handed. I am proud to say that I didn't scream or cry, though I REALLY felt like it.