Hey! Let's Talk Turkey...

I was recently asked to help a troup of Brownies earn their "career badges". So this troup learned about cake decorating by creating thier own little turkey cupcakes. We all had loads of fun making these, but they didn't last long. As soon as the finishing touch was on, they asked permission to eat them. Below are the instructions to make your own turkey cupcakes.

Supplies Needed

White and Chocolate fondant

small amount of yellow fondant

Fondant roller/ board

3" Garret Frill Cutter (raise middle cutter)

1" frill cutter

Spatula

Toothpicks

dozen cupcakes

Chocolate Buttercream

Red and Yellow Buttercream

Piping Bags equipped with couplers

#14, #9 piping tips

Knead 2 parts white to 1 part chocolate fondant together, but do not fully incorporate colors.

Roll out to about 1/8" thick and using the frill cutters, cut out 6 large and 6 small.

Center the small cutout over the large, then cut in half, as shown, creating the tails.

Using side of spatula, make indentions over the tails.

Set aside to firm up.

Roll out a 1" size ball of chocolate fondant into a sausage and fold the end over to create the head.

Insert a toothpick into the other end and set into styrofoam.

Roll out a small amount of white fondant and cut two circles, using the #9 piping tube.

Roll out two tiny balls from chocolate fondant and place over white to create eyes.

With a 1/2" ball of yellow fondant, make a cone for the beak.

Afix eyes and beak to the head of the turkey.

Using the red buttercream with the #9 piping tip, pipe the turkey's wattle under the beak and to the top of one side of the beak as shown.

Pipe decorations onto the tail with the red and yellow buttercream using the #14 tip.

Crumb coat the cupcakes. Using the #14 tip, pipe chocolate buttercream stars over the cupcake.

Set tail in place and build up stars on the back side to afix into place, then push head into cupcake.

Last, pipe wings over the sides, using chocolate, yellow and red buttercream.

Here is the "glammed up" version.

Instead of colors, simply use chocolate buttercream , gold dragees for the eyes and tail, and highlight the wattle with gold luster dust.

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Tutorial and Photos by Jacque Benson, 2009, all rights reserved.

Tutorial may not be reproduced without written permission from the author.