The Crafting Diaries: Turkeys on Turkeys on Turkeys

Author: Anna Ravenelle

Each week on “The Crafting Diaries” Anna Ravenelle scours Pinterest looking for exciting projects that claim the average crafter (and/or college student) should be able to accomplish and then sets out to prove them wrong. Usually failing in her crafting efforts, Anna works to flesh out the instructions of complicated projects so that you (yes, you!) can avoid failure where she did not.

There are about a million and one internet posts with fantastic ideas on how to make your very own Turkey-themed treats for this Thanksgiving. With many of those, however, there’s a slight issue: Most of them require Michelangelo’s sculpting ability (or the Cake Boss’ at least) for success. Me? When it comes to cupcakes, I’m more of a Picasso and not in the “masterpiece” sense of the word.

Regardless, I undertook two (seemingly) simple projects this week, inspired by Lizzy at Your Cup of Cake and Sara at Our Best Bites respectively.

 

Ingredients (Turkey Cupcakes):

• Chocolate-frosted cupcakes
• Reese’s Pieces
• Hershey Kisses
• Mini M&M’s
• White frosting (I bought pre-bagged decorating frosting)
• Orange food coloring

 

 

First, assemble the turkey heads. Squeeze out a big blob of white frosting onto a clean surface like a plate or cutting board (I used aluminum foil) and mix in some orange food coloring.

 

 

 

Take an unwrapped Kiss and swirl the tip of it around in the frosting to form the beak. Stick a red mini M&M on one side to form the gobble, or what I just learned is scientifically a “snood.”

 

 

Next, put two globs of white frosting opposite the snood and press two more mini M&Ms on top for eyes.

 

 

Then, place the Kiss-face in the middle of your cupcake and place Reese’s Pieces in a semi-circle around it. If you’re allergic to peanuts, candy corn or normal M&M’s would work here as well.

 

 

 

That’s it, your turkey is done! Definitely the easier of the two desserts I recreated, people may actually recognize it for what it is. It has the added benefit of being easy to eat, unlike the Oreo Turkeys I tried to make next…

 

 

Ingredients (Oreo Turkeys):

• Double Stuf Oreos
• Reese’s Cups (the small ones)
• White frosting
• Orange food coloring
• Dark food coloring (I used blue)
• Whoppers
• Candy corn (or other similarly colored candy, like the previously used Reese’ Pieces)**
• Mini M&M’s

 

** Some stores (coughTargetcoughcough) don’t actually carry candy corn after Halloween; by this point in the year, it’s typically all Christmas, all the time. Luckily, I found Thanksgiving-colored Sixlets hidden away in the back corner of the store so I could avoid using Reese’s Pieces again and add a little variation to the two treats.

A bit more complicated than the cupcakes, these Oreo Turkeys also aren’t quite as cute. But, if done right, they do appear more impressive!

To start, color some more orange frosting and use a toothpick to draw little feet onto an Oreo. I was terrible at this, and mostly ended up with giant orange blobs. The one pictured was completed by a much more talented friend.

 

 

After that, unwrap a Reese’s cup and slice off a little piece at the bottom so it has a flat base. It’s really easy to crush them, but a crushed Reese’s cup is an unusable one and if you can’t use it, eat it… it’s a win-win situation, really.

 

 

Once there is a flat bottom, put a dab of frosting on the largest surface of the cup and fasten it to another Oreo, then frosting a Whopper into place on top of that. Let it settle for a minute, then frost the bottom of the Reese’s and stick the entire thing on top of your feet-Oreo.

 

 

Next, what you’ll want to do is smash up some yellow or orange mini M&M’s until you have a roughly crescent-shaped piece. Alternatively, you can use the whole M&M but (I say this from experience) it will be the Pinterest fail we were all destined for from the beginning. Take some frosting–orange or white, your preference–and attach it to the whopper. If you were able to find candy corn, you could cut off the tip from those to use instead.

 

 

Mix up some darker colored frosting, like a dark blue, and using a toothpick, make dots for two small eyes above the beak.

Lastly, fill up the top Oreo crack with frosting and shove your desired feather candy inside. Again, if you could find candy corn, this would be the place to put them. The narrow tips will fit perfectly into the crevice. Reese’s Pieces or M&M’s would also fit very well. Sixlets, being completely rotund, will sit right on top of the crack and only fall off after you’ve worked very hard for the past hour to get them to stay.

 

 

But that’s it! They may not be a showpiece, but at least it’ll taste better than that time Rachel screwed up the Friends-giving dessert.

 

 

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