a thanksgiving special: turkey cupcakes

Some of you may recognize these cupcakes from my other blog (which has now been "deactivated"), but these were too cute not to share on this thanksgiving Monday.

Now sometimes I find myself in a baking rut...and that baking rut is usually called "chocolate cupcakes".  But I tried this recipe last year, and it has since become one of my new favorites!  

It's a brown sugar pound cake.  To me this sounded dense and potentially dry.  In reality?  Totally not dense, and totally moist. 

I got the idea for the turkeys from I Heart Baking's Blog, they're just so darn cute.  And the icing?  Absolutely divine.  The recipe is similar to your regular butter cream, but you replace the milk/cream with Bailey's.  Soooo good, and a perfect compliment to the cake!

To ice these cupcakes we used a small star tip for the points, and a larger star tip for the swirl.

Just add a bit of cocoa powder to darken your icing for the turkey's body.  Use an m&m (or a skittle) for the head, red sprinkles for the wattle, an orange sprinkle for the beak, candy corn for the feathers, and an edible marker to draw on the eyes!  Easy peasy.

Brown Sugar Pound Cake

From allrecipes.com, by: ARVILLALAR

Ingredients:

2 cups Brown sugar

1 cup Sugar

1 1/2 cups Butter

5 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup milk

3 cups Flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 cup Pecans (chopped)

Directions:

1)  Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

2)  In a large bowl, cream together brown sugar, white sugar and butter until light and fluffy.

3)  Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla and baking powder.

4)  Beat in flour mixture and milk alternately, mixing until just incorporated

5)  Stir in pecans.

6)  Pour batter into: a greased and floured tube pan OR cupcake tins lined with cupcake wrappers OR a regular 9x13 (I did 12 cupcakes and an 8x8 and it turned out wonderfully).

7)  Bake for about 60-70 minutes for a tube pan, about 20-25 for cupcakes. 

*They're done once a toothpick comes out of the center cleanly.* 

Bailey's Irish Cream Frosting

from: Dulcedo blog

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Butter (room temperature)

2 tablespoons Bailey's Irish Cream
2-3 cups Icing sugar

Directions:

1) Beat together your butter and icing sugar.

2) Start adding Bailey's until you have the texture you want (depending on how soft your butter is, you may need to add more or less then the recipe says).

*Depending on how you choose to ice your cupcakes/cake, you may need to double this recipe (I did!).

So, there you have it! Turkey cupcakes and a fantastic cake/icing combo to try in the future!

Happy Thanksgiving!

p.s. ♥ kelsey