Thanksgiving Turkey Pull Apart Cake

Simplify your holiday dessert menu by turning Thanksgiving Turkey Cupcakes into a cute Turkey Pull Apart Cake!

Thanksgiving Turkey Cupcakes Make The Most Adorable Pull Apart Cake

I love making creative pull apart cakes with cupcakes! These adorable Thanksgiving turkey cupcakes will not only feed a crowd, but are also super easy to make. It’s so much fun to make cute turkey treats and wouldn’t this be so cute on your Thanksgiving dinner dessert table!

We made these colorful cupcakes from scratch, but you could easily order them at your local bakery, then assemble at home. Whatever you decide to do, this fun Thanksgiving Pull Apart Cake is the perfect dessert to show off at dinner!

What you’ll need to make Thanksgiving Turkey Cupcakes

Free Printable Turkey Template and Hat (Scroll down to print)
24 cupcakes in your choice of flavors
1 can of chocolate fudge frosting
Buttercream frosting (see recipe below)
Yellow, orange and red food coloring gel
Orange and red candy melts
M&M Candy for the turkey’s eye
Toothpick
Tape
Wax paper

Turkey Cupcakes – Pull Apart Cake Directions

Start by printing off the free printable hat and turkey cake template so you know where to place each cupcake, what colors you will need and where.

Download the Free Printable Turkey Cake Map & Hat

Click here to download––> the Free Printable Turkey Template and Hat

This printable design is for personal use only.

Now bake two dozen cupcakes using a box mix or your favorite homemade recipe. The turkey shown here has both chocolate cupcakes as well as vanilla.

While your cupcakes are cooling, place approximately 10-12 orange chocolate candy melts in a sandwich bag. Do the same with the red chocolate candy melts.

Cut out the pattern for the turkey’s beak and snood from the free printable and place a piece of wax paper over the top of it.

Melt your chocolate slowly (30 second increments) in the microwave until it is completely softened. Using scissors cut a tiny hole in the corner of your sandwich bag and trace the pattern with your chocolate. Use the orange for the beak and the red for the snood.

Let the chocolate harden in a cool place until you are ready to decorate your cupcakes. Now it’s time to make the frosting.

How to make Buttercream Frosting

1½ cups of soft butter
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 cups powdered sugar
3-6 tablespoons milk

Start by mixing the butter, slowly add in the powdered sugar about a half a cup at a time. Once all of the powdered sugar is combined with the butter add the vanilla. To loosen up your frosting add milk a tablespoon at a time.

Decorate the cupcakes!

Using the chocolate fudge frosting, frost six of your cupcakes. Grab the tray you will be serving your cupcake turkey from and according to the free printable turkey “map” place these cupcakes where the turkey’s body, neck and head go.

For the colored cupcakes, start by adding approximately 1 – 1 ½ cups of frosting to a separate bowl with a drop or two of yellow food coloring and mix until combined. Use the yellow frosting to decorate four cupcakes and add these to your tray.

You may or may not have yellow frosting left over when you are done with these four cupcakes. If you do, simply add another 1½ cups of plain vanilla frosting to your yellow frosting (or just the same bowl) and add orange food coloring.

Once your orange frosting is combined, frost the next 5 cupcakes and place them on your tray. Repeat this same process by using the rest of your frosting and make a darker shade of orange by adding some red food coloring to the orange. Frost the last 6 cupcakes and place them on the tray. You will have 3 plain cupcakes leftover that you can decorate and eat now or add to your turkey where you see fit.

Decorate the Turkey’s Head

Place the chocolate beak, snood and a candy eye (we used a green chocolate M&M) into the frosting. Cut out the hat from the free printable sheet and tape it to a toothpick, making sure there is enough toothpick sticking out to go into the top of a cupcake. Right before you are ready to serve add the turkey’s hat.

All of this can be done a day or two before Thanksgiving, just keep your cupcakes in an art tight container in the fridge. Assemble your turkey before you are ready to serve.

Here is another version if you want to test your skills with the frosting. We thought it looked like he was pooping fire. Or just a big pile of poop on fire. Yep, it was time to stop at that point. ha!