Turkey Cupcakes
I can’t believe it is Thanksgiving week already!! We are headed up to the mountains tomorrow, and thanks to Mother Nature, it looks like it will be absolutely freezing up there with hopefully some snow. My sister and her family are driving down from New York, and Walker can’t wait to see his cousins. He is especially excited because we bought my two nieces Rainbow Looms as an early Christmas present and as a good way to take up a lot of time in the house when it is too cold to go outside. Walker, as a ten year old boy, does not want a Rainbow Loom for himself, but he is super excited to play with his cousin’s new loom. If you have not heard of a Rainbow Loom- it is the new fad way to make bracelets out of little rubber bands. I am amazed at the huge amount of add ons that you can buy for your Rainbow Loom- loom cases, extra bands, carry cases to carry you loom case- it goes on and on. In addition to the Rainbow Looms, I was digging around to find fun kitchen projects for the kids, and these Turkey cupcakes looked perfect. (Picture from FamilyFun Magazine and recipe from www.spoonful.com)
Turkey Cupcakes:
First, make cupcakes according to the directions of your favorite box brand and frost with chocolate icing.
Ingredients for Decorations:
3 oval shortbread cookies
6 to 10 candy corn pieces
White icing
Black decorators’ gel
Red fruit leather (fruit roll ups work well)
Directions:
Frost the cupcake, then press in a cookie head and 2 cookie wings. Press in a row or two of candy corn tail feathers. To make an eye, add a small dot of white icing to the head, then add a dot of black decorators’ gel for a pupil. For a beak, cut the white tip from a piece of candy corn and press it in place. To make the wattle, cut a 1-inch square of fruit leather. Roll it into a tube and stick it in place over the beak.
I am not sure what Thanksgiving is like in your family, but we usually eat our meal in the late afternoon. I like this because it gives everyone plenty of time to do what they need/want to do beforehand. Corby has a tradition of going for a Thanksgiving day bicycle ride which is usually 40-50 miles and that takes a while. I like to go for a run in the morning so I can eat anything I want later, and of course there is all the cooking that needs to be done and football that needs watching. The only problem with eating in the late afternoon is that everyone is starving and ready to eat an hour or so before we actually do. So, this year, I found a great recipe on www.closetcooking.com for a very filling and delicious breakfast that will tide everyone over until the big feast. Also, as I mentioned in a previous post, my brother and sister-in-law are in charge of dessert this year, and they are making pecan pie and banana pudding (which I am super excited about). However, no pumpkin pie, so this breakfast is even more perfect- Pumpkin Pie French Toast! I can’t wait!
My entire family is spending Thanksgiving together up in the mountains. Granted there are only 11 of us, so it is not that huge, but we did want to make Thanksgiving as easy as possible- especially on my mother who usually does everything. So take the load off of her for a year, my brother in law is making the turkey, my brother and his wife are on dessert, and I am on the side dish and salad (my mother is making the stuffing because hers is the best and we as children would rather not mess at least that up). My brother, sister and I of course agree on what the side dish should be since we all grew up with the same one every year- sweet potato pie. However, our spouses have different traditions in their families and hence different ideas on what the side dish should be. I found this recipe and while it says stuffing, it seems like more of a casserole, and it seemed to include a lot of different flavors and ideas, so maybe I will go with this.