How to Make Cute Candy Thanksgiving Turkeys

These candy turkeys are tons of fun to make for classroom or office parties,  providential buffets (I don't believe in luck), Thanksgiving "hello" gifts for neighbors, or decorations for place settings.  They are easy to make- especially if you have a friend or two helping to do it assembly-line style.

I would love to give credit to the person who came up with this brilliant idea.  Unfortunately, I have no clue where I first saw it.  I've been making these for years and they are always a favorite.  It just doesn't seem like Thanksgiving if we haven't made the turkeys!

To make about 60 of them you only need 5 ingredients: 

1 package of 60 sandwich cookies (Each cookie makes 1 turkey), your choice of color

2 cans of chocolate frosting

1 cup of powdered sugar

3 bags of orange slice candies (with approximately 20 per bag so you have a total of 60)

1-2 bags of candy corn depending on how big the bag is.  You'll need 360 whole ones total. 

1. Mix 1/2 cup of powdered sugar with one can of frosting to make the frosting a little more stiff.  (Do the same with the second one if you need more frosting.)

2. Fill a pastry bag with the frosting. (Use a large star tip.)

 3. Carefully pull the cookies apart and scrape off the filling.  Discard the filling.

4. Pipe a semi-circle of icing onto half of the cookies.

5. Press 5 candy corns into the icing in a fan pattern.  Make sure they are evenly placed.  They shouldn't hang too far off of the edge of the cookie.

6. Cut the orange slices at the 2/3 mark.  Eat the smaller pieces.  The larger ones will be the bodies and should be cut at a slight slant or almost straight up depending on how good your icing is at holding them.  You can experiment a little- I usually assemble 1 completely to get a feel for how they are made (since I only make them once a year).  After that I start with the assembly line.

7. Pipe a 1" line of icing onto the other half of the cookies. (See below) Place the orange slices with the smaller ends toward the front and the cut ends toward the back of the cookie.  (See picture.)  Pipe a blob of icing below the 5 candy corn feathers.  This icing will be the glue that holds the feathers to the orange slice body.  In the picture below the cookie with the candy corns at the far right is an example of the feathers and the cookie with the orange slice second from the right is an example of the bodies.  So now you should have half cookie feathers and half cookie bodies.  (If your icing is hardening quickly you can do these in smaller groups.)

8.  This is the tricky part.  Take the feather cookie and press the icing from it into the orange slice.  Hold it there and pipe a chocolate dot at the back to add extra strength to hold up the cookie.  Finally, pipe a dot of icing onto the top of the orange slice and place a whole candy corn on it for the head (beak facing out!).  

Voila, you are finished!  

9.  Here's a picture of the steps all in a row.

 10.  And here is the finished product. Cute as a button and guauanteed to be eaten only by children and others who have a very high tolerance for sugar.

Enjoy!  Let me know how they turn out if you try them- and share your tips!