Today I’m going to show you how to make a fun Thanksgiving craft perfect for both kids and adults! These darling turkeys are made from candy and completely edible! They are a fun activity for holiday parties, family nights, or just for fun. I’m also going to show you how to make a great little pilgrim hat at the end as well.
Ingredients/Supplies needed for candy turkeys:
Double Stuff Oreo Cookies
Candy Corn
Whoppers
Mini peanut butter cups
Chocolate frosting*
Yellow Frosting*
Optional: Red frosting*
Optional: black sprinkles for eyes
*For these kinds of things I love to use the little pre-filled tubes of colored frosting you can buy in the baking aisle. The chocolate is easy to make, and homemade actually works a little better because you can make it stiff. However, for the colored details like yellow and red, these little tubes are great. It doesn’t really matter what they taste like and they last forever (which is both cool and disturbing at the same time.) I’m using store-bought tubes for everything here purely for convenience- works great!
Step 1:
Grab a cookie. You don’t have to put frosting in there, but I like to because it holds in the candy corn a little better. Just give it a little squeeze of chocolate.
Then stuff in your candycorn. If you’re in some sort of candy corn shortage, you can cut off the white tips to use later for your beaks. I think the candy corn sticks in better with the tip so I leave it on. Go ahead and do all of the cookies through this step.
Step 2:
Next, put a dab of frosting on the opposite end of the cookie and secure it to the “base” cookie. It helps to place them next to a wall as they dry so they stay put.
While those are drying, unwrap your peanut butter cups. Take a sharp knife and cut a sliver off one end. (I don’t need to tell you what to do with the sliver, do I?) It helps to gently cut in a sawing motion so you don’t break the PB cup. (Although I wouldn’t have to tell you what to do with a broken one either, would I?) Cut it from the bottom like I show here:
Once those are ready, flip your cookies over, but you may find it’s easy to keep them next to the wall. My frosting was a bit soft, so they needed the extra support.
Place a dab of frosting on the peanut butter cup, and place it on the cookie like so:
Step 3:
Now those little guys will need heads, so glue a whopper on there with frosting as well. I put frosting on the side of the whopper that hits both the cookie and the PB cup. We wouldn’t want a turkey running around with its head cut off, would we??
While they’re still lying there, use a dab of frosting (I use yellow) and glue on the white tip of a candy corn for a beak. Put two yellow dots on for eyes, and for the black spots in the eyes you can use a dab of chocolate frosting, or a mini chocolate chip, or a little sprinkle like I’ve used. A sprinkle is really the perfect size if you have them.
Step 4:
Once the beak is secure, you can flip them over and draw on some little yellow feet. If you have red frosting too (usually comes in a set with the tube of yellow) you can add a little gobble gobble. Or whatever that thing is called. What is it called? I’m too lazy to google. Extra giveaway entry for the first person who can tell me. Okay not really but I’ll think you’re awesome.
And there you go, cute as can be!
These make really cute place card holders too, for either a kid, or adult table! How cute is my little turkey family?
Stick one on each plate and everyone will say “Awwwwwwe….” If you have kids old enough to handle making them, it’s a fun project for them to be in charge of.
They’re also darling combined with pilgrim hats.
Those are just marshmallows dipped in chocolate and placed on a fudge strip cookie. Use yellow frosting to make the buckle. (Pretty much the Thanksgiving version of the Halloween witch hats seen in this post!)
Hope you enjoy these fun little things! Happy Friday!
Questions & Reviews
SO cute! Just adorable! Although I am unable to use peanut butter cups due to server peanut allergies in my family. What do you suppose I could swap them for? Perhaps Rolos would work? Or something else?
I wonder if you could find a similar sized candy at a natural foods store where they would probably have lots of nut-free options? Rolos might be a little small, but you could try that!
The name for the flexible anatomy below the turkey’s chin is a wattle !
Save yourself some dough by saving some of that Halloween candy.
these are so cute! they are fun for 5-40 year olds! : )
Nabisco also makes a MEGA Stuffed Oreo. I’m going to try those out tonight. I’m putting my turkeys on top of frosted chocolate cupcakes.
Thanks so much, these turkeys turned out great! We had several difficulties with the icing, instead of using icing to connect the base and the body of the turkey, we inserted a toothpick. It was much more stable!
Thanks for the idea, Happy Thanksgiving! <3
These turkeys are absolutely adorable!! I am having my two teenagers work on these little guys for tomorrows Thanksgiving Dinner table, esp., since I am having a couple of special guests coming over.
Thanks a lot!
How long are they good for before they become stale? Or how can I keep them fresh til the party?
It’s called a wattle 😉
I love your little turkey family. Thanks for the descriptive recipe and your happy comments. Have a blessed Thanksgiving!!
One of my friends posted this on Facebook – the turkeys are just adorable! I’m going to make them (with my grandkids, if they like) and give them to the neighbors for Thanksgiving!
Hey…look at Mom’s Got Ink on FB. She stole your photo from this post and cut off your watermark. She does this daily to lots of bloggers…thought I’d let you know so you could also report her. 🙂
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It is called a waddle
Christmas is coming, the Oreo’s are getting fat? lol 🙂
Obviously this craft has been on the net for a while and I am just finding it. Someone posted a picture on Facebook and that got me searching for directions. They are so cute. I want to make them for Thanksgiving but am wondering–will the two Oreos really stay glued together? I haven’t read the over 300 posts so don’t know it anyone has encountered a problem with that or not.
Yep.
I have to say I just came across this. It is AWESOME… I have a 3 yr old that loves helping make them for parties… If you use your imagination you can make ANYTHING!!!!!! SO cool thanks for sharing…
I saw these on the food network and got the ingredients and had my guests make their own. I substituted chocolate covered cherries for the reeses due to allergies, did’t cut. We had so much fun!!! and everyone was over 35 at my dinner. Do you know of more ideas for making things from candy? I can make a small biplane airplane from 2 lifesavers, one cube of carmel a roll of smarties 2 long pieces if gum and a rubberband. Can you direct me to more ideas like the turkey?
It’s called a wattle….the hangy-downy thing on their neck.
Made these for thanksgiving! So far Everybody loves them 🙂
your turkey cookies were great, hope u have something for xmas.
Would it be ok to put them in the fridge? And if so do I needa put a lid on them?
We are doing this for Thanksgiving thanks for the idea and instructions
thank you Sara for publishing these adorable turkeys. My two granddaughters (7 & 10) and I made them this afternoon and had a wonderful, messy, chocolaty time making a memory.
the red thing under the turkeys beak is called a “wattle” the redder and brighter it is attracts the female,”catches her eye,” so to speak.
Congratulations! These are so cute!! Every time I look at the recipe, I smile!
I’m making this on Monday and won’t serve them till Thursday. How do I keep them fresh? What type of container do I use?
Thanks so much!
I just made them last night, and I made 24. It took me two hours!!
Just made these-and they are soo cute! I would not suggest using store-bought chocolate icing to hold the two oreos together. I used melted chocolate and they stuck together fine, but it would have been difficult to use just icing–I don’t think I would have been able to get them to stick together.
they do stick together with store bought icing it just takes longer for them to dry. My kitchen looks like a turkey farm since we made 24 of them!
How early could you make these and still have them taste okay?
Several days, just put them in a container and they’re fine!
What a delightful creation and excellent photos to help us along the way.
You ladies have a warm and friendly spirit. I also appreciate your sense of humor.
Thank you for posting this. My grand girls and many other friends will be the grateful recipients of this special treat.
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. We have much to be grateful for in the United States, one Nation under God.
AMEN!!