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!
Sara, I just saw this and OMG what an AMAZING idea!!! you are a GENIUS!!!!! I have too much to cook this week but I’m so tempted to try this just because they are so darn cute!!!!
Thanks for sharing!!!!
i was wondering were i could get those cute name tags
I was wondering how i get those cute name tags.
This recipe is GREAT!!! I made it and it cost about 25 bucks!! It’s sooo easy!
<3…:)
Someone posted this on facebook and I just bought all the ingredients to make them with my kids! I can’t wait 🙂 Thanks for sharing this!!
OH dang it! I am sitting at the table doing these and I came back to see if you had some hints for the cookies not cracking when putting the candy corn in…DUH DUH DUH…I didn’t see those integral words “DOUBLE STUFF” oreos…and now I see you have it IN BOLD. What an idiot I am. On the way to the grocery for double stuff Oreos. Note to self…this is the second time in the past week I have missed some integral piece of information in a recipe. READ THE INGREDIENT LIST x3!!!
thx.
awwwwe i am making those this year!! deffinetly
LOVE IT LOVE IT, LOVE IT. Those are so darling and thanks for the ideas. I also love pears and will be making that piefor Thanksgiving. Thanks again for the wonderful recipes. Happy Thanksgiving. Paulette
Thanks so much for this great “how to”…just did a few of both of these tonight with my soon to be 12 yr old. So much fun!
These are wonderful! I will be making these next week for Thanksgiving table. The red skin under the beak is the wattle, the red skin hanging over and to the side of the beak is the snood, and the beard is a little tuft of feathers that stick out on the chest/breast of the turkey.
I would definitely use the sprinkles for the eyes. I decided I would use my cake decorating kit and I didn’t wait long enough for the yellow eye frosting to dry and then when I tried to put the black on there the frosting pulled off and made the eyes all smeary. FYI! Get the sprinkles for the eyes and save yourself alot of trouble.
I made these turkeys for my first grade class today. They loved them! I was pronounced the best teacher ever. 🙂 Thanks!
Don’t know if you found out what “It” is but it is a wattle. Cookies are a great idea for a classroom of kids. (make sure no peanut allergies) My first graders love this activity.
These are so cute! I hope to make these with the kids I babysit for! Thanks for the great idea!
OhmyGOSH… so freakin’ adorable! Not to mention, almost ALL of my favorite candies. Hmm…. If I can get bacon incorporated, I might just die and go to a state of orgasmic levels! 😀
Just attempted to make the Turkey cookies… Lots of trouble with the oreo’s breaking. I will have to try sagain b/c they are so cute!! Thanks for the detailed instructions!
Thanks for the awesome instructions! My mom’s friend made them for us every year for many years – now I have a great set of instructions and pics for my son’s 3rd grade class 🙂
Just found these via a Google image search… they are awesome! I think I am going to have my Daisy Girl Scouts make these. Love your site!!!
omg – guess what I’m making this coming weekend – TURKEYs – love them – and love everything that goes into them as well (that’s not necessarily a good thing). THANKS for sharing…. ooh what fun we’re going to have.
I see little delicious turkeys in our families future! Thank you for sharing such an adorable, edible idea. And if you are seriously having a drawing for a Silouhette (sp), count me in!
These are absolutely adorable! I had to share it on my blog http://craftbliss.com/ and I linked back to you. Thanks for creating and sharing! ~Dee
This was a super cute idea but…I bought Oreos and all of the cookies were too thin (even double stuff) to put the candy corn in. Tried the icing and it didn’t help. If Oreo Double Stuff was actually DOUBLE, I am sure it would’ve worked.
I had all my friends wondering how to make these turkeys when I shared the photo on Facebook. I finally found your website under the photo and am impressed with your creative ideas! My grandchildren will benefit from your website and my friends guessed pretty well on how to make the turkeys! Thanks!
I put your turkey creation on my facebook page…shared from another friend..had all my friends guessing on how to make it until I got smart enough to trace your website and see all your creations! Awesome job!
SOO adorable! I would love to make these with my nephews and niece!
These are the cutest Thanksgiving craft I have ever seen! Thanks for sharing. I loved them so much I shared them on my Family site “Family Strong”. (familystrong.blogspot.com). I gave you guys full credit and posted a couple links to your site, so I hope that is okay… if not, just let me know.
Thanks again for this little gem. I will definitely be making these for my Thanksgiving table this year ;o)
It’s things like this that make me the favorite Aunt! The nieces and nephews are soooo going to love me this year!! 🙂 I wonder what Christmas themed stuff you can make from them?? I’m seeing lots of Halloween and Thanksgiving. Anything Christmasy??
This is so cute and will be making it for my son’s class. I can’t wait!
I have a question…Can these be frozen???? Would love to make these ahead of time if possible….
They are the cutest thing I have ever seen…Thanks
Sure! Just leave them out, uncovered, at room temp for a few hours and they’ll be perfect.