Kids enjoy helping an adult make cupcakes for holiday celebrations.
The first Thanksgiving celebrated between the English and the Native Americans consisted mainly of deer, corn and shellfish. Most of the foods we eat at Thanksgiving today were not available then, especially the notorious dessert course. Using frosting tricks, decorating Thanksgiving cupcakes is a creative way to complement the main feast.
Easy Toppers
Children love helping in the kitchen, and even the youngest assistant can make great looking cupcakes with simple cupcake toppers. Frost cupcakes with a layer of any flavor of frosting, then place mellowcreme pumpkins or other store-bought sugar toppers in the middle of the cupcake for a simple, festive look. For easy turkey cupcakes, frost the cupcakes with chocolate frosting and pipe a blob of frosting near the edge for the turkey's head. Add a candy corn beak and several candy corn pieces for the tail. Place sugar eyes -- available at craft stores in the cake-decorating aisle -- to complete the turkey.
Cornucopias and Pilgrim Hats
Make cupcakes decorated with traditional Thanksgiving symbols. To make a cornucopia cupcake, frost the the cupcake and place a Bugle corn snack on the top for the "horn." Use Runts candy (or any small candies shaped like fruit) for the fruit "plenty." On a different frosted cupcake, build a Pilgrim's hat using any round, chocolate cookie for the base and a miniature peanut butter cup for the top of the hat. For the hat band, cut a thin strip of a fruit roll-up and wrap it around the base of the peanut butter cup. Pipe yellow frosting on the band in the shape of a buckle.
Roasted Turkey
Recreate the look of the main Thanksgiving meal with cupcakes. Karen Tack has perfected a roasted turkey cupcake in her book "What's New, Cupcake?" To recreate the look, shape rolled out candy caramel sheets around a mound of frosting on the cupcake to look like the turkey's body. Leave an opening in the body to allow some of the frosting to be exposed. Press nugget-type cereal into this frosting to make it look like stuffing. Use two broken Pringles wheat sticks wrapped with a small portion of caramel to assimilate legs. Moisten the legs and adhere them to the body. Pipe white frosting on the ends of the wheat sticks so they resemble leg bones.
Cupcake Cake
Instead of decorating individual cupcakes, arrange many cupcakes into one large shape and decorate them as a whole. Arrange the cupcakes in a circle and either frost them in bright orange, or as a lattice-topped pie. Add a cupcake to the top (where a stem would appear) to the circle to create a pumpkin. Cupcakes can also be positioned in the shape of a cornucopia, turkey or any Thanksgiving icon. Cupcake cakes are less labor-intensive than individual cupcakes and yet they retain the ease of single-serve portions that cupcakes offer.
Tags: cupcakes with, candy corn, individual cupcakes, look like, peanut butter