How to Make a 3D Turkey Cake

It is that time of year again and I am getting quite a few requests for the directions for my roasted turkey. I had posted the instructions in an earlier thread but will repost them here in case anyone is having trouble locating that thread:

Here we go! If it seems that I have left something out by accident or if you have any questions just let me know..I’ll be happy to help! I wish I had written everything down when I was making my turkey cake but I didn’t!

I baked the following:
1 9×13 cake
1 half egg (the large one) cake
8 mini egg half cakes

I started out by putting the 9 x 13 on a regular turkey serving plate for effect but you don’t have to! Place your large egg shaped cake (round side up) and put on top of the 9 x 13 cake, with icing in between to hold in place. I didn’t use any dowels or any support. Carve the 9 x 13 to match the shape of the large egg cake…save the scrap cake pieces. On the pointy end of the large egg cake, I sort of hollowed that end out to resemble the cavity of the turkey. On the opposite end a carved in a slight vertical indentation to resemble the other end!

Attach two of the mini egg cakes together with icing to make an egg shape and repeat this with the remaining egg cakes; these will be the drumsticks/wings. Attach these to the body, with icing. You’ll need to cut away one side of each of these mini eggs to get them nice and close. For the wings I attached ice cream cones with icing..you may need to break away pieces of the ice cream cone to get it to sit right. For the drumsticks I inserted the hollow plastic dowels on an angle.

Once all is in place cover the cake with a thick crumb coat and add extra icing to build up where necessary and to get the desired shape. Let it crust over. Then with tan/brown icing go over the cake with a nice thick layer of icing. Let it crust over, pat with a textured paper towel to get that “skin” look.

Airbrush the cake with brown coloring OR if you don’t have an airbrush, just mix color with water and use a spray bottle. Let this dry really good before the next step or you will have a mess!

In a spray bottle mix warm water, Karo syrup and brown coloring and spray the turkey cake lightly!!!!! This gives the wet look. I don’t have a ratio of water, syrup and color. It just has to be thin enough to pass thru the spray bottle.

Cut your cake scraps into squares and attach to the cavity with icing to resemlbe the stuffing/dressing. I made the paper frills out of regular paper and slid those on the ends of the drumsticks. Add lettuce leaves around the base if you choose and that’s it!

I think that about covers it! Again, if you have any questions, just let me know! Enjoy!

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