Cute Thanksgiving Turkey pumpkin Cake

This cake turned out so cute and I absolutely love it. Thanksgiving can be so much more special with this  pumpkin cake. This moist and delicious recipe is from thenovicechefblog.com. Let’s get baking!

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice (optional)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 (15 oz) can pumpkin
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup milk

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Grease 2, 8-inch round cake pans and line with parchment paper. 
2. In a medium bowl, whisk flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl or a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time.
4. Stir in the vanilla, pumpkin and vegetable oil. Add in the flour mixture alternately with the milk.
5. Pour the batter evenly into the prepared pans. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool.
6. Make cream cheese frosting or buttercream. Stack and layer the cakes. Now, crumb coat and refrigerate for at least 10 minutes. Now frost and smooth out the cake with brown colored cream cheese frosting.
7. Fill two piping bags with a little bit of yellow frosting in one bag and black frosting in the other bag. Pipe eyes with the black frosting on the side of your cake and a beak with the yellow.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED FOR THE CANDY MELT “FEATHERS”: 

• Red candy melt
• orange candy met
•  yellow candy melt 
• brown candy melt
• spatula or food safe brush 
• parchment paper

DIRECTIONS:

1. Melt your candy melt according to the packages instructions (for me I melted in 30 second intervals) 
2. Take a spatula or food safe brush and dip it into the chocolate, drop it onto the parchment paper and with the tip of the spatula or brush and sort of ‘brush’ it out in a streaking motion to get that feather effect. 
3. They harden pretty fast (Mine only took about 10 min. to harden.) You can even stick it in the fridge if that helps but room temperature should be fine. Let them dry. 
4. Once dry, stick them in the cake wherever you want. Start on the back edge of the cake and layer the feathers to add texture and depth. If they start to fall you can stick toothpicks behind them to hold them up. Enjoy and happy thanksgiving!

Thanks for baking with me!

~ Natalie