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How to make an edible pilgrim hat and bonnet, cupcake turkey, and apple turkey

The turkey cupcakes are a little more work, so if you don’t want to go to that much trouble, you can give all the ingredients to the guests, and let each person make his or her own turkey. You will still want to make at least one turkey as a sample, or several samples if there are lots of guests. (If some of them decide to eat the ingredients as is, that’s o.k., too.) If you do make a lot of turkey cupcakes yourself, you will need to make the tail, body, and head and store separately, and then put them together on the day you serve them. Otherwise, if you put them all together and wrap them in plastic, the moisture from the cupcake makes the cookies soft and flop over, and the heads becomes a wet sticky mess. (more true confessions!)

To make the head, knead 2 caramels together and shape into a neck and head. Press mini chocolate chips into the sides of the head for eyes. For the beak, cut the yellow end off one Candy Corn and press into a beak shape, then press into the face. Cut one Redhot in half and press into the face to represent the waddle. For the tail, “glue” several Candy Corn to a cookie with icing. Leave flat until the icing has hardened. Store the tails, bodies and heads separately. Before serving, fasten the tails to the bodies with icing and fasten the heads on with 2 toothpicks each. Warn guests that there are toothpicks in the cupcakes!!

To make marshmallow bonnets, heat an apple corer over a burner and use it to melt the middle out of the marshmallows to form the rims of the bonnets. Press the inside “core”out before you remove the corer from the marshmallow, or the middle tends to slide back into the marshmallow as you pull the corer out of the marshmallow, and they are so sticky, there is no way to separate them again. Discard the marshmallow “cores” (or eat them!)  Either rub cornstarch onto the insides of the marshmallow cylinders, or leave for several days to dry out--they are too sticky to use as is. Cut each cylinder marshmallow at it’s narrowest point. Then, cut each cylinder again, this time in half lengthwise and lay the two strips over two whole marshmallows. The whole marshmallows form the bonnets, and the strips form the rims of the bonnets. To form the bonnet ties, use kitchen shears to cut around both flat ends of yet another marshmallow. If you don’t have an apple corer, you can use a paring knife heated over a burner, then cut the outer edge of the marshmallows. This all sounds complicated, but it’s not. Once you “core” the marshmallows, it is really quick to assemble the bonnets.

Note: Kitchen shears are the easiest way to cut marshmallows. They tend to get very sticky, so keep dipping them in cornstarch between each cut. Once they get too sticky, wash and dry them thoroughly, and continue cutting and dipping in cornstarch.

How to make apple turkeys

Cut a small slice off the bottom of the apple if it tends to roll. Fold a colorful paper napkin to represent the tail. Make a hat from a Tootsie Roll by squishing it shorter, then pinching out a brim all the way around one end. Poke a toothpick through a marshmallow circus peanut (the head) and into the hat diagonally. Poke two mini chocolate chips into the sides of the head for eyes. For the beak, cut off the yellow end of a Candy Corn, or knead yellow chewy candy such as Star Bursts and form into a beak shape. Use a pointy instrument, such as a chopstick or skewer to poke a hole in the peanut and press the beak into the hole. Cut a gummy candy for the waddle, and press against the peanut near the beak. Poke another toothpick into the peanut, and poke both toothpicks into the apple. The marshmallow circus peanuts will harden if left out in the open, but they don’t taste so great, so your guests aren’t likely to eat them anyway!