Make the holidays extra special this year with a fun and festive Thanksgiving turkey cake as your centerpiece. Follow Jean Schapowal’s super steps for a festive cake with plenty of character! This fondant turkey cake can certainly feed a crowd, but if you have extra mouths to feed (or just want to be extra festive), it pairs really well with Thanksgiving-inspired cupcakes.
Edibles:
- Cakes: 6, 7, and 8 inch
- Buttercream
- Fondant: yellow, orange, red, brown, black, and white
- Chocolate
Equipment:
- Knife
- Cardstock
- Rolling pin
- Cake drum
- Round cutter
- Toothpicks
Carve the Thanksgiving Turkey Cake
- Stack and fill the cakes with the smaller cake on top and the larger cakes on the bottom.
- Carve the stack from top to bottom, creating a narrow top to a wider bottom. Save your cake scraps. You can always make a cake pop mixture to add more width to the bottom of your cake to get the right shape.
- Crumb coat with buttercream and then chill.
Decorate the Thanksgiving Turkey Cake
- Using some thick cardstock, make a feather template for the turkey, approximately 7 inches by 2¾ inches.
- Roll out yellow, orange, and red fondant and cut it out with the template.
- Brush the back of each feather piece with melted chocolate for support. Set aside to dry.
- Roll out some brown fondant, cover the cake, then transfer to the covered cake drum.
- Take some of the leftover brown fondant and roll out 4 assorted-size teardrop-shaped pieces. These will be for the top of the turkey’s head. Set aside to let stiffen.
- Take a small orange-size piece of orange fondant. Flatten a bit with your palm to a 2-inch thickness. Shape it into a triangle, and using the flat side of your knife, cut a line across and down the shape. Round each end a bit. This will become the turkey’s beak.
- Roll out some black fondant. Using the 1½-inch round cutter, cut out 2 circles for the eyes. Attach them to the turkey with water.
- Melt some chocolate and coat the ends of the feathers to begin attaching to the back of the turkey. Keep adding the feather pieces one at a time, attaching with more chocolate as you go.
- Attach the beak with a little bit of the melted chocolate.
- Roll out some white accents for the eyes and roll out a rope of brown. Wrap the brown rope of fondant around the turkey from one side of the feathers to the other. Using your fingers, gently push in every few inches around the base.
- Using toothpicks and a little melted chocolate, attach the brown teardrop shapes to the top of the turkey’s head.
- Roll out a quarter-size piece of red fondant. Roll into a long, thin teardrop for the turkey’s “snood.” Attach around the beak using some water.
This tutorial originally appeared in the November/December 2020 issue of American Cake Decorating.
Jean A. Schapowal
Jean A. Schapowal from Cakes with Character is an award-winning cake artist based in Long Island, NY, and has been creating cakes for more than 15 years. Having been a cartooning and Illustration major in art school, Jean brings her cartoony, pop, comic-book style to her cake creations. Jean competes regularly in cake shows across the country, placing with many of her entries, and contributes to many online cake collaborations. Jean was also a finalist for a Cake Masters award for best collaboration and has appeared on numerous TV cake challenges. She loves to create fun and engaging pieces, cakes that “pop.” When people see one of her creations, they can say, “Oh, that’s a Jean cake!”
