Turkey Cupcakes for Thanksgiving

If you are looking for the perfect cupcakes for the kids to serve for Thanksgiving Dessert then you are going to love these easy to make Turkey Cupcakes! Using chocolate candies, candy corn, pretzels, and chocolate frosting to decorate cupcakes you will have adorable Turkey Cupcakes that are perfect for Thanksgiving dessert!

Turkey Cupcakes

If you are looking for an awesome individual treat to make for Thanksgiving, you are going to love these Thanksgiving cupcakes.

It is no secret that I love cupcakes for the holidays, especially when kids are involved. Kids always love cupcakes, they are easy to make and they are an individual dessert that is easy for kids to enjoy.

For Thanksgiving, I wanted to have a super cute cupcake that looked like a turkey and I think these are perfect.

I choose to use a boxed cake mix to make the cupcakes, but you can totally use homemade cupcakes. I also made it so you can use homemade frosting or store bought frosting. While I love homemade frosting and will choose it over storebought anytime because of its awesome flavor, there are times when I am glad for store bought frosting because it makes things quick and easy, like these easy Thanksgiving Cupcakes.

Tips for Making Cupcakes

Fill the cupcake liners appropriately. You do not want to over fill the cupcake liners. Follow the directions for the specific cupcake recipe, if the recipe doesn’t tell you how full stick to the 2/3 full rule. Which is roughly 3 tablespoons of cupcake batter per cupcake liner.

Use the best kitchen tool for filling liners. If you are working with a thick cupcake batter then you want to use a spoon or a cookie scoop to fill the cupcake liners. If it is a thin cupcake batter then use a bowl with a spout or a glass measuring cup to pour in the batter.

Follow the recipe. Each cupcake recipe is different. It is important to follow the recipe as directed. all of our cupcake recipes have been tested multiple times to make sure they are perfect.

Bring ingredients to room temperature. Cupcakes will bake best when the ingredients are brought to room temperature before mixing the cupcake batter.

Do not over mix. Over mixing the batter will lead to having tough and flat cupcakes. When making cupcakes you have to be careful that you don’t over mix the batter when you are folding in the flour mixture. If you over-mix your angel food cake batter your cupcakes will turn out flat. You want to mix everything just until mixed, over mixing will cause you to have rough and tough cupcakes. We all know that the best cupcake are light and fluffy.

Bake one tray at a time. Using the center of the oven rack and bake one tray of cupcakes at a time. This will give you the best cupcake results.

How to Store Cupcakes

It is best to store cupcakes in an airtight container on the counter. Cupcakes are best to be enjoyed with in 48 hours of making them. They won’t be bad to eat after 40 hours but they will start to dry out and not be as fresh.

After frosting cupcakes you are ok to store them on the counter for a day or 2 but after that they should be stored in the fridge.

If you are storing them unfrosted you can store them in an airtight container or a plastic bag. If you are storing them with frosting on top I suggest using a cupcake storage container.

How to tell when cupcakes are done baking

I like to use the toothpick test when I am making cupcakes with the kids because it is easier for them to see and learn. But if you have been making cupcakes for a while you may not want to use that method.

If you are wanting an even easier method, the cupcake bounce done method as we call it is even easier. Pull the tray of cupcakes out from the oven and lightly press on a cupcake in the middle of the baking pan. If it bounces right back and no finger print is left behind then your cupcakes are done. If there is a finger print you need to bake them for a few more minutes.

Tips for Decorating Cupcakes

Allow cupcakes to cool completely before frosting. If you frost cupcakes while they are still warm then the frosting will melt.

If you have never decorated cupcakes, be sure to check out these posts to help you. I promise you that it is super easy to have bakery fancy cupcakes made at home in your kitchen!

• How to get a perfect cupcake swirl
• Easy Way to Fill a pastry bag
• How to Swirl multiple Flavors of Frosting

Variations of this recipe.

Use Homemade cupcakes. You can use store bought cake mix to make the cupcakes and bake them according to the package or you can use homemade cupcakes. The best flavors to use would be chocolate cupcakes, vanilla cupcakes, chocolate chip cupcakes and

Use homemade frosting. I used a tub of frosting but you can also use homemade frosting. If you are using chocolate frosting you can use it as is, you can also use almond buttercream, vanilla buttercream, or marshmallow buttercream and color it brown with food coloring.

Chocolate candies. I used M&Ms but you could also use Reese’s pieces.

Turkey Cupcakes Ingredients

• 1 box chocolate cake mix and the ingredients to make them according to the box. or a batch of homemade chocolate cupcakes
• 1 16 ounces tub chocolate frosting 
• 48 candy eyeballs
• 24 brown M&Ms
• 24 Orange M&Ms
• 24 Yellow M&Ms
• 144 Candy Corns
• 48 Mini Twist Pretzels

How to Make Turkey Cupcakes

Bake the chocolate cupcakes according to the box or the homemade cupcakes recipe you are using.

While the cupcakes are cooling make the buttercream frosting if you are using a homemade frosting.

Add 1/2 the frosting to a piping bag with a large round tip. 

Using an off set spatula spread the remaining half of the frosting on the cupcakes. 

Then use the bag of chocolate frosting and pipe a large round circle on top of the frosting you spread on top in the front 1/3 of the cupcake. This will create the turkey’s head.

Place the candy eyeballs and one piece of candy corn on the round circle of the frosting to create the face.

Place 2 pretzels at the back of the cupcake and fill in the space between the head and the pretzels with 5 pieces of candy corn to create the tail.

Place one brown, one orange, and one yellow M&M on each side of the head to create the wings. 

Thanksgiving fun for kids

• Thanksgiving I Spy Printable worksheet
• Thanksgiving Memory Game Printable
• Turkey Marhmallow pops
• Turkey Sugar Cookies