Two days ago, I posted a photograph of a cake I baked for Thanksgiving, way back in 2009. The cake was shaped like a turkey. I just came across another blog post from the time, in which I answered a question about how I put it together. Here is how I did it.
The turkey cake was made from two chocolate cakes, baked in 9-inch Pyrex bowls instead of cake pans (stainless-steel bowls supposedly work just as well) and a spice cake, baked in a loaf pan. (Of course, you can use whatever flavors you want, but keep in mind that you’ll be using unfrosted cubes of some of it as stuffing.)
After the cakes cooled, I trimmed the flat edges of the two bowl cakes to make them flatter and then “glued” them together with vanilla buttercream frosting, to make kind of a globe. I held it so the icing seam was vertical, and I cut some cake off the bottom to make a flat base. The whole thing then got attached to a serving platter with a smear of icing.
Then I carved two drumstick shapes out of the spice cake and attached them to the sides of the chocolate turkey body. I cut some of the leftover spice cake into small cubes.
I frosted the whole cake with a thin base coat of chocolate frosting. Then I made some more frosting by combining the rest of the chocolate frosting with the rest of the vanilla buttercream. I added melted butterscotch chips for their color and ability to harden when cool. And I frosted the whole thing over with that.
I used the spice cake cubes for stuffing, and “glued” it on with icing. To make the stuffing more realistic, I needed some cubes that were lighter in color. I had some vanilla madeleine cookies on hand, so I cut a few into cubes and added them too. Then I sprinkled mint flakes and cinnamon on the stuffing, to look like seasonings, and some cinnamon on the rest of the cake. I arranged orange slices and dried cranberries on the tray with it. For the crowning touch I made frilly white paper caps on the ends of the drumsticks.
Bon appetit!
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