Today, I made my first sculpted “roasted turkey” cake for a Thanksgiving block party. I really enjoyed making this cake because I was able to practice my cake sculpting and carving. When my husband brought the cake to the party, everyone thought he was bringing in another turkey for the dinner. Little did they know that this was a pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting!!

I bought a plastic platter at Fry’s to put the cake on…this really added to the effect. For the actual cake, I baked two 13×9 inch pumpkin cakes from scratch (my Mom’s recipe). I stacked, filled and carved the cakes in the shape of a turkey. The cake was tall enough to round the edges and mimic a roasted turkey. The scrapes from the sculpted cake were saved to make the “stuffing” for the platter.

For the first time, I made my own rice cereal treats to see if it was worth the work. (It was a whole lot cheaper than using pre-made Rice Krispies Treats) I shaped two turkey legs and two little wings out of the rice cereal treats. I also made a batch of marshmallow fondant and colored it a light brown. I didn’t have time to let the fondant sit for a while and stiffen up a bit so my fondant was very squishy. I covered the cake, drum sticks and wings with the fresh fondant and then painted it with a mixture of vodka and brown food coloring. This mixture made the fondant look like actual cooked turkey skin.

I rolled out green fondant and mimicked lettuce leaves for the garnish. I also made cranberries to give the platter some color. I hope you like the cake!!