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Easy Turkey Cake on Buttercream Grass
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5 from 2 ratings

Turkey Cake (Thanksgiving Cake)

Learn how to make a homemade turkey cake with simple ingredients and tools. This showstopper Thanksgiving cake is pumpkin flavored and decorated with fondant and icing.
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time40 minutes
Decorating time40 minutes
Total Time1 hour 30 minutes
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Servings: 9 Slices
Calories: 121kcal
Author: Abeer Rizvi

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Bake cakes and allow them to cool completely.
  • While cakes are baking and cooling, prepare the frosting.
  • Slice off the domes of the cakes, if there are any, so they are levelled and straight.
  • Place one cake on a round serving dish.
  • Spread pumpkin butter on top.
  • Place the other cake on top.
  • Ice the entire cake in frosting smoothly.
  • Roll out brown fondant and spread it over the iced cake.
  • Smooth it out and cut off excess from the base with a pizza cutter.
  • Press the grass tip (Wilton tip # 233) randomly onto the side of your fondant covered cake. This will make tiny indentations all over the the body.
  • Use your hands to shape some rice krispie treats into a pear shape. Cover it in brown fondant. This will be the torso of the turkey.
  • Stick a toothpick on top of the torso.
  • Also make a rice krispie ball and cover it in brown fondant. This will be the face/head of the turkey.
  • Push the rice krispie ball on top of the toothpick. You can use some water or corn syrup to hold it securely.
  • Start adding other features like a hat made from black fondant, a yellow beak, yellow collar, and yellow feet (made with a star shaped cutter). You can stick these pieces by brushing very little water or corn syrup.
  • Tip:To save time, you can make the hat and feet beforehand. I made them a week ago and they were waiting to be used when I started putting this cake together.
  • Next, the cake needs to be attached to the rice krispie torso. To do that, scoop out about 1 inch of cake from the side and push your rice krispie body into this opening. Use some icing to stick the 2 pieces together. Don’t worry if the fondant on your cake starts to get messed up while you are trying to push these two pieces together. It will all get covered in feathers.
  • Use Wilton tip # 233 again to make indentations on the rice krispie torso.
  • To make wings, use a medium sized leaf cutter to cut out 2 leaves. Cover them in indentations with Wilton tip # 233.
  • Brush some water behind those leaves and stick them onto the side of the rice krispie torso. Your turkey now has wings!
  • Make facial features: To make eyes, make small balls of yellow fondant. Flatten them with your finger and make black pupils with edible marker. Stick these eyes onto the face of the turkey. Now, roll out some red fondant into a sausage shape and push it onto the side of the beak using a toothpick.
  • Roll out red, yellow and brown fondant. Use a small leaf cutter to make many small leaves in these colors. Let them dry up a little. These will be the feathers of your turkey.
  • Tip: To save some time, make a bunch of these leaves beforehand. I made them while watching T.V last week. Also, making these feathers beforehand hardens them a little and they they hold their shape better when I stick them on top of the cake.
  • Brush some water or corn syrup around the outer edges of the cake and start sticking these feathers.
  • When the outer edge is covered in feathers, brush some water or corn syrup on the inside and stick more feathers. Keep doing this until the top is fully covered in feathers.
  • Fill a piping bag with green icing and attach the grass tip (Wilton Tip # 233). Cover the entire base around the cake with green grass.
  • Place a few fondant flowers randomly all over the grass.
  • Finally, steam your cake so that everything on the turkey sticks into place. Steam also makes your cake shiny and neat. Enjoy!

Notes

  • Read all my tips above.
  • Leftovers can be stored in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 3 days. 

Nutrition

Calories: 121kcal | Carbohydrates: 21g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 4g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 49mg | Potassium: 22mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 20g | Vitamin A: 413IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 3mg | Iron: 1mg