Happy Thanksgiving-Part One!

By: Christine

I wanted to make a variety of fun Thanksgiving treats to bring to the three locations that I was going to be visiting on Thanksgiving day. 

 Pumpkin Cheesecake Bites with Gingersnap Crust
I started out making the gingersnap crust using gingersnap cookies, butter, maple syrup, and brown sugar. Then I made the cheesecake filling. I pressed the crust into the mini muffin tins and poured the filling on top.

I baked the cheesecakes and allowed them to cool.

I drizzled white chocolate on top of the mini cheesecakes and sprinkled on a fun fall mixture of sprinkles.

 "Roasted Turkey" Cupcakes
I wanted to make something really creative and fun for my family for Thanksgiving and, once again, I turned to one of my favorite books: What's New Cupcake.
I decided to make roasted turkey cupcakes using caramel chews, frosting, cereal & pretzels.
After baking one dozen cupcakes, I rolled out the caramel chews flat and cut them into circles.

I spread vanilla buttercream frosting on the top of the cupcake. Then, I placed the caramel circle on top and pinched the sides in to create the turkey body. I rolled the end of the turkey in cereal to get the look of stuffing coming out the end.

Using more cereal that I had mixed with green frosting, I added a bed of lettuce to the sides of the cupcake around the "turkey"

I used pretzel sticks with caramel wrapped around the ends as the drumsticks and attacked the drumsticks to the sides of the turkey. These roasted turkeys were complete and so cute!

 Pilgrim Hat Cake Balls

These pilgrim hat are very similar to the leprechaun hats that I had made for St. Patrick's Day only instead of green hats, I made these hats brown.

I placed the cake balls in a candy mold with melted milk chocolate. Then, using the milk chocolate, I drew circles onto parchment paper. I attached the cake ball from the candy mold to the chocolate circle. Then, I drew on the black band around the edge of the hat and completed these hats with a golden buckle.