Thanksgiving Day Place Settings

I saw these made last year and I knew they were right up my alley so I made it a point to plan to make them for Thanksgiving this year, I'm using them for each place setting at turkey dinner.  They aren't too difficult to make, the kids can help and they are the cutest realistic turkey cupcakes I 've seen.

The making process~

 Step 1- Bake up a batch of cupcakes, while you are doing this- put those little ones who love to help in the kitchen to work unwrapping all of the caramels.  My two year old literally unwrapped each and every one of the caramels, she loved it but not as much as me...tedious things like that make me nutty.

 Step 2- Soften the caramels in the microwave for 5-10 seconds (I did four at a time in a bowl for about 9 seconds, you'll know when you've softened too long...just until they are mold able.  Then take one and wrap and mold it around a pretzel stick for each leg.)

 Step 3- Melt some white chocolate chips or candy melts, then dip in the end of each stick to make them look like those chicken leg bones.  Again, I used the microwave to melt my choc. chips, in intervals of 30 seconds, and stirring in between.

 Step 4- for the lettuce/relish around the turkey, tint some frosting green and then melt it in the microwave 1 min or so until thin and coat corn flakes, cool and dry on wax or parchment paper.  However, next time I will use green candy melts, I think they will harden up better and not turn the cornflakes as soft which will help when decorating.

Step 5- Roll out 3-4 soften camels for each body with rolling pin in between wax or parchment paper.  Use a circular cookie cutter to form the body and a smaller cutter to make way for the stuffing area.  Other alternatives are you could use a drinking glass for the larger circle and scissors for the smaller- to just cut it out.  I had the bigger circle cookie cutter but then I used a gingerbread man cookie cutter (the leg of the gingerbread man was just the right size for the smaller hole.)

 Step 6- Stuffing made out of cut up pieces of pound cake.  I used the Sara Lee brand found in the frozen dessert aisle at the grocery store.

Step 7- Lay the circular body forms on a frosted cupcake attaching the smaller circle ends, push edges down with a utensil if needed, there will be frosting around the edges but this is what you want so you can have frosting set to apply the relish/lettuce, then put a dab of water on each side where you will attach each leg.  (They stick quite well with that tiny dab of water.)

Step 8- Apply the stuffing, lettuce/relish and the fruit (I used Sixlets but you can really use any candy.)

Aren't these the cutest things? Check out the Cupcake Books, "Hello Cupcake" and "What's New Cupcake" for more great cupcake ideas.  Happy Thanksgiving and Count Those Many Blessings!