I did some cupcakes for a church bakesale this weekend and wanted to share how quick and easy these cupcakes turned out. I decorated them to look like turkeys and at $1.50 each, they were sold out in an absolute flash. Everyone couldn't believe how cute they were and believe it or not, someone with very limited or basic decorating skills could do them.
Use tip 104 for the feathers. Spatula stripe one bag with red and orange and one with yellow and brown. After filling bags, line up skinny end of tip 104 with the color stripe you want on the outer-most edge of the ruffle of feathers. With the fat end of your tip towards the middle of the cupcake (skinny end towards edge) use a zig-zag motion to pipe feathers. Use tip 12 to figure pipe the neck. Add tip 3 white eye spots and tip 1 brown for eyes. Use tip 352 (my favorite leaf tip) for the beak.
You may notice that my turkey is very shiny. This is because I used cream cheese icing instead of buttercream. To make this icing, use my regular buttercream icing recipe, ommitting the added liquid (milk or water) and the creme bouquet and also replacing 1/2 to all of the shortening with cream cheese. I like to replace all of the shortening with cream cheese, but this makes an icing which melts in your bags, so you must work quickly and with small amounts. It results in a crusting icing which can be piped.
