Forget Pie! Delight Guests With Thanksgiving Cupcakes

Buck Thanksgiving tradition by presenting these Turkey Day-themed cupcakes on your dessert table. Not only are they super adorable and easy to share, but restless kids will suddenly be excited to stay at the dinner table just a little longer so they can feast on these festive treats.

Turkey Cupcakes

1 cup shredded sweetened coconut
Pumpkin Cupcakes (See below)
Simple Chocolate Buttercream
18 coconut-covered marshmallows
36 chocolate sprinkles
90 mini gummy fish (orange, red, and yellow)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread coconut on a small baking sheet. Bake, stirring occasionally, until just beginning to brown, about 10 minutes. Remove from oven, and let cool.

Ice cupcakes with chocolate buttercream. Dip top of each cupcake in coconut to cover; set aside.

To make the turkey heads: Stick the point of a wet toothpick into the side of a marshmallow in two spots, about ½-inch apart. Fill the holes with chocolate sprinkles to resemble eyes. Cut a small triangular piece of gummy fish from the head of a fish, to resemble a beak. Cut a small slit in the marshmallow below the eyes, and insert the beak. Place marshmallow head on cupcake. Repeat with remaining marshmallows.

To make the tail feathers: Insert 4 gummy fish, tails first, into each cupcake across from the heads.

How to Make Pumpkin Cupcakes

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground allspice
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin puree

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice; set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together, brown sugar, granulated sugar, butter, and eggs. Add dry ingredients, and whisk until smooth. Whisk in pumpkin puree.

Divide batter evenly among liners, filling each about halfway. Bake until tops spring back when touched, and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes, rotating pans once if needed. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool completely.

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How to Make Buttercream!

1 ½ pounds (6 sticks) butter, softened
1 pound confectioners sugar, sifted
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons semisweet chocolate chips, melted and cooled

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the butter, sugar, vanilla and salt. Begin beating on low speed, increasing to high for 2 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl occasionally. Stir in melted chocolate.

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