This Thanksgiving, why not start and end your menu with turkey? These turkey themed cake pops are not only festive and  cute, but extremely tasty. Plus they’re a fun treat the kiddos can help make. 

Cake pops are the popular treat on a stick. The mixture of cake crumbs and frosting rolled into balls and coated in a crisp outer shell of candy coating, makes for a very sweet, moist treat. These portable confections can be customized to fit any occasion. And any combination of cake and frosting flavor can be used. Once dipped, they can be coated with sanding sugar, nuts, crushed cookies, sprinkles, coconut, or even your favorite chopped candy. 

While the candy coating has a slight crunch, the interior is soft and moist, (hopefully your turkey in the oven is too). 

When rolling your cake balls, if they crack, add a bit more frosting. And when coating them, make sure they are chilled. If they’re room temperature, they can slide right off the stick while being dipped. The coating dries fast and acts as glue. So it’s used to adhere the “tail feathers, head and feet.” 

If your coating seems too thick or is hardening, just pop it back in the microwave at 30 seconds intervals and stir until smooth. 

These adorable treats also double as place settings. Just attach name card to the stick and the little birds will let your guests know just where to sit. 

This is one turkey everyone will be sure to gobble up! 

TURKEY CAKE POPS

INGREDIENTS:

1 box chocolate cake, baked according to package and cooled in 9x13 pan

1/4 cup chocolate frosting

36 mini pretzels 

Orange candy melt

4-5 squares of Chocolate Almond Bark (found in baking section at Walmart) 

12 Cookie Dough Bites (found in candy section at Walmart) 

Confetti sprinkles, 24 white and 12 orange are needed

Daisy sprinkles, 24 orange and 12 pink are needed

Black icing gel

12 cake pop sticks

DIRECTIONS:

Using your hands, crumble cooled cake into fine crumbs in large bowl. Leave bordering edges around pan, as they tend to be dry. 

Mix in frosting until cake crumbs are all moist and have the consistency of dough. 

Roll cake dough into 12 golf sized balls. Excess dough can be refrigerated for later use or eaten. 

Place rolled balls on baking sheet lined with non-stick mat or wax paper, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour or freeze for 15 minutes. You want the balls chilled and firm, but not frozen.

In the mean time, make the tail feathers. Lay out pretzels in uniform on a non-stick mat or wax paper. Melt about 1/2 cup of orange candy melts, following instructions on package. Place melted candy melts in piping bag or zip top baggie and snip off small corner. Drizzle in a zigzag motion over pretzels, coating them well. Set aside.

In a deep microwave safe bowl, melt Almond Bark, following the instructions on the package. Make sure you do not overheat the coating. Stir until smooth.

Next, the turkey heads. Take a Cookie Dough Bite and dip one flat end in the melted Almond Bark. For the beak, take one orange confetti sprinkle and place in middle, sticking straight out horizontally. For wattle, (thing that hangs under turkeys neck), attach a pink daisy sprinkle standing up vertical under beak. Next, the eyes. Attach two white confetti sprinkles, flat and side by side, right above the beak. Using a toothpick, dot on black icing gel to complete eyes. 

Remove balls from fridge or freezer. Dip about 1/2 inch of the tip of your cake pop sticks into the coating and insert about half-way into the center of your cake ball. Put back on sheet to set and repeat until done.

Dip each cake pop into the coating until fully covered and let the excess drip off while tapping gently and swirling to get a smooth finish. Set dipped pops back on lined baking sheet. 

To assemble turkeys, dip the bottom edges of three pretzels into coating and attach to the back of cake pop in a fanned out shape. (You may have to hold in place for a second for it to set.) Next, attach the heads by dipping opposite end of face into coating and place on front side of cake pop. Dip the very edges of two orange daisy sprinkles into coating and attach where the feet should go. Repeat with all of the cake pops.