Turkey cupcakes are the perfect festive treat to elevate your holiday gathering. With their adorable design and delicious flavors, these cupcakes are sure to be a Thanksgiving hit!
Easy and Festive Treats for Everyone to Enjoy!
Everyone will gobble up these fun, abstract turkey cupcakes! They are easy to make, and you don’t need any special cake decorating skills to bring these festive treats to life. Although the cupcakes are all vanilla, you can make the turkey decorations all brown with dark chocolate, all white with white chocolate, or make some of each. The recipe lists instructions for making both flavors.
Creating the Turkey Cupcake Features
These turkeys have three parts to decorating them. First, you pipe frosting onto the cupcakes with a large star piping tip to form the bodies. Second, you create tail feathers with chocolate using a spoon or a wide, food-grade paintbrush. And finally, you make the turkey heads with melted chocolate.
Tail Feathers Technique
For the tail feathers, place a dot of chocolate, approximately 1 1/2 to 1 inch in diameter, on the parchment paper. Then, using a food-grade paintbrush or the back of a spoon, pull each dot to create a 3-inch streak of chocolate. Practice a few until you can make thick tail feathers, because they will not easily break. Each turkey will need 5 tail feathers. Then, refrigerate the feathers until the chocolate hardens.
Creating the Turkey Heads
On a parchment-lined baking sheet, drizzle melted chocolate with a spoon to form 20 hook shapes—make 10 white chocolate and 10 dark chocolate heads. Think of making them in candy cane shapes. They should be about 2 1/2 to 3 inches tall with a neck long enough to stick into the frosting without falling out. Make a few extras in case you break some. And remember, they do not have to be perfect—these are abstract turkeys after all.
Assembling the Turkey Cupcakes
Once all the turkey heads and tail feathers are made, pipe frosting onto the cupcakes using a large star tip to make the turkey bodies. Start piping from the outer edge of the cupcake, creating a tall, ruffled dome by making circles until you reach the center. A star tip will give the body a ruffled, “feathered” appearance reminiscent of the plump turkeys the White House pardons before each Thanksgiving.
Turkey Cupcakes: How to Assemble
White Chocolate Is Easiest
White chocolate tail feathers are easiest to work with since they appear opaque and conceal many imperfections. In contrast, dark chocolate feathers can be translucent in spots where the chocolate is thinner. However, imperfections are unlikely to be noticed because these cupcakes are all about fun and presentation. I served these delightful treats during Thanksgiving, and they definitely brought smiles to everyone’s faces—plus, they were incredibly delicious!
Tail Feathers for Turkey Cupcakes
Insert 5 tail feathers around the back of the frosting, spreading them like fingers as shown above. The top of each feather is where you started pulling the chocolate with your paintbrush or spoon, because it will have a rounded appearance. The bottom of each feather is usually narrower, where the chocolate became thinner.
Match the Tail Feathers
Sort the tail feathers by height and size for each cupcake. For instance, group all the short feathers, long ones, thick ones, and thin ones before you start. This will make it easier to create turkeys with feathers of the same size and shape. You can also adjust the height of each feather when you insert it into the frosting by pushing taller feathers in a little farther.
Placing the Turkey Heads
Place the turkey head in the frosting where you want the turkey’s front to be. Do not place it too close to the edge of the frosting, or it can fall off the cupcake. Use the photo below as a guide for head placement.
Add Turkey Cupcakes to Your Celebration
Whether for a holiday or a special occasion, these turkey cupcakes are a creative and enjoyable addition to any dessert table. They will delight kids of all ages! Enjoy!
Other Cupcake Recipes You Might Enjoy
Click on each name or photo to link to the recipe.
Turkey Cupcakes
Equipment
- parchment or waxed paper
- baking sheet pans
- 10 dark brown or black cupcake liners
- 10 white cupcake liners
- 2 large piping bags
- 1 large star piping tip (1M or similar)
- coupler for a piping tip
Ingredients
Chocolate Tail Feathers and Turkey Head Ingredients
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate wafers or chips
- 1 cup white chocolate wafers or chips
Vanilla Cupcake Ingredients
- ⅔ cup sour cream, room temperature
- ¾ cup buttermilk, room temperature
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 4 large egg whites, room temperature
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil
- (1) 15.25-ounce box white cake mix (Duncan Hines used)
Buttercream Frosting (Vanilla & Chocolate) Ingredients
- 2 sticks butter
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup heavy cream
- 4-5 cups powdered (icing) sugar
- ¼ cup cocoa powder, set aside (do not add until the second part of the recipe)
Instructions
Instructions for Chocolate Tail Feathers and Turkey Heads
- Place a sheet of parchment or wax paper on a baking sheet. Make all the chocolate tail feathers first.
- In a microwave-safe bowl, start with 1/2 cup of the semi-sweet chocolate and melt it in 30-second intervals, stirring after each interval. This will take approximately 1 to 1.5 minutes.
- When the chocolate is melted and stirred to a smooth consistency, drop a 1/2 to 1-inch chocolate dot onto the parchment paper. Using a food-safe paintbrush (or the back of a spoon), place the brush in the chocolate dot and pull it toward you to make a 3-inch straight line. Continue making tail feathers until you have 50 dark chocolate tail feathers.
- Once the tail feathers are made, place the baking sheet in the refrigerator to harden the chocolate while you make the turkey heads. Heat the remaining semi-sweet chocolate wafers in 30-second intervals, stirring after each interval. Stir until smooth.
- Make 10 turkey heads by drizzling chocolate with a spoon onto parchment paper in the shape of a 2 1/2 to 3-inch candy cane. Repeat until you have 10 heads for half of the cupcakes. (Make a few extras in case you break them.) Place the heads in the refrigerator to chill for approximately 10 minutes, or until they are hardened.
- Make the white chocolate turkey tail feathers and turkey heads by melting the white chocolate in a clean, microwave-safe bowl in 30-second intervals. Repeat the process above with the dark chocolate, making 50 white chocolate tail feathers and 10 turkey heads. Chill the white feathers and heads in the refrigerator until they are hardened.
Instructions for the Vanilla Cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 325°F.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the sour cream, buttermilk, vanilla, eggs, and vegetable oil until smooth and well combined. Then sift in the cake mix and stir until smooth but not overmixed. Do not skip sifting the cake mix; otherwise, the batter will be lumpy.
- Using a cookie scoop, place the cake batter into 10 brown cupcake liners and 10 white cupcake liners. If you have any leftover batter, fill a few extra cupcake liners.
- Bake for 23 minutes or until cupcakes are lightly browned and a toothpick inserted into the middle of a cupcake comes out clean or with crumbs. Do not overbake. After 5 minutes, move the cupcakes to a cooling rack.
Instructions for Chocolate and Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
- Use an electric mixer to beat the butter, vanilla, and salt until creamy. Add the cream and stir. Add the powdered sugar a cup at a time, beating between each addition. If the frosting is too stiff, add more cream. If too soft, add more sugar.
- Divide the frosting in half: place 1/2 in a separate bowl and leave 1/2 in the mixing bowl. Add the frosting from the separate bowl to a large piping bag fitted with a coupler and a large star tip. Pipe vanilla frosting on all the cupcakes with white liners to make the turkeys' bodies. Start by creating a circle of frosting around the outside of a cupcake top, and then continue circling, moving in closer to the center with each subsequent circle. This will make the frosting taller in the middle of the cupcake. Repeat this process until all 10 cupcakes with white liners are frosted. Remove the star tip and wash it.
- Add 1/4 cup of the cocoa powder to the remaining frosting in the mixer bowl. Stir, then beat with the mixer until well mixed. Add a splash of cream if the frosting is too stiff.
- Add the chocolate frosting to a clean piping bag, then use the star tip and coupler to pipe it onto the remaining 10 cupcakes with brown liners. Use the same technique of circling around the cupcake from outside to inside to make a tall dome.
- Insert 5 white chocolate tail feathers into "the back" of each vanilla-frosted cupcake. Add a white chocolate turkey head to each of these cupcakes. Then add the dark chocolate tail feathers and turkey heads to the chocolate-frosted cupcakes.