Learn how to make this fun and festive Thanksgiving Turkey Cake.

One of the best things about the fall season is pumpkin spice everything. Pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin spice candles, and pumpkin spice cakes!

This Thanksgiving Turkey Cake is made with fluffy pumpkin spice cake layers, rich chocolate ganache, and white chocolate decorations.

These light and fluffy pumpkin spice cake layers are insanely delicious and easy to make at home. The pumpkin spice cake is balanced with rich whipped chocolate ganache that’s only two ingredients, so it’s foolproof and the perfect frosting for beginners.

The fun starts when I show you step by step how to make these adorable white chocolate decorations. You’ll melt white chocolate in the yellow, orange, red, and brown colors. Then you’ll learn how to make feathers using a dollop of white chocolate and a brush.

This adorable Turkey Cake will make a beautiful addition to your Thanksgiving table!

Tips for Success:

Read through all the ingredients and instructions so you can get a better idea of how much time and what you need to make this cake.
A single batch of this cake recipe makes three, 6-inch round cake layers or two 8-inch round cake layers. Double the cake recipe to make enough cake batter for three, 8-inch cake layers.
In this cake recipe, you need 1 cup buttermilk; if you don’t have any buttermilk on hand, you can easily use 1 cup whole milk mixed with 1 Tablespoon lemon juice or white vinegar to make your own.
To make cake flour at home, mix 2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour and ¼ cup cornstarch. Sift or whisk together to get rid of any lumps.
Be careful not to overmix this cake batter, or else the cake will come out dense. Mix until all ingredients are well incorporated.
You can bake the cake layers ahead of time. Wrap the cake layers in plastic wrap and freeze up to one month.
You can make the ganache several days ahead of time and refrigerate for up to one month. Then take them out to come back to room temperature. Make sure the ganache is at room temperature before whipping to double in size.
To save time, you can make all the chocolate decorations ahead of time and wrap the baking trays holding all the decorating in plastic wrap until ready to decorate.
Serve the cake at room temperature and use a hot knife to cut and get clean slices.

What Tools You’ll Need to Make This Cake:

5-quart, Stand Mixer with mixing bowl & paddle attachment
3, 6-inch cake pans or 2, 8-inch cake pans
Offset spatula
8-inch or 10-inch white cake board
Serrated knife or cake leveler
Turntable
Cake scraper or bench scraper
Whisk or sifter
Rubber Spatula
Non-Stick Cooking Spray and Parchment Paper
Ice Cream Scooper with Trigger Release (for dividing cake batter evenly)
Piping Bags (I use reusable silicone bags)
Cake Stand, optional
4 small microwavable mixing bowls
2 baking trays lined with parchment paper
Pastry brush

Here’s how to make this super adorable Thanksgiving Turkey Cake!

Let’s Get Decorating!

How to Make Fluffy Pumpkin Spice Cake

Preheat the oven to 350 °F. Spray three 6-inch round cake pans with non-stick spray, line the bottom of each pan with parchment paper, and spray again. Set aside.
In a medium-size bowl, whisk and stir together the all-purpose flour, cornstarch, baking powder, salt, and pumpkin pie spice. Set aside.
In the stand mixer bowl fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter, oil, and sugar on medium-high for 5 minutes.
Add the eggs, one at a time, to the stand mixer bowl and beat on medium until well incorporated.
Turn the mixer on low and add the flour mixture to the butter mixture until fully incorporated.
Pour in the buttermilk and vanilla extract. Mix on medium for another 30 seconds – scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Evenly distribute the cake batter among the three cake pans and bake for about 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of each cake comes out clean or with just a few moist crumbs.
Remove cakes from the oven and let cool in pans for 10 minutes before inverting onto cooling racks to cool completely. Wrap cakes in plastic wrap and place into the freezer to chill for 30 minutes.

Rich Whipped Chocolate Ganache

Add semi-sweet chocolate chips to a small microwavable bowl. In another small microwavable bowl, heat the heavy cream to a light simmer for about 1 minute.
Pour hot, heavy cream over chocolate chips. Allow chocolate to melt for 1 minute. Use a whisk or rubber spatula to mix the chocolate and cream. Mix until its velvety smooth. If chocolate is still not melted, heat in the microwave in 15-second increments.
After the chocolate ganache has cooled, add the ganache to a clean stand mixer bowl fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on medium-high until the ganache has doubled in size and is light and fluffy.

How to Make White Chocolate Decorations

In 4 small microwavable mixing bowls, melt each color (red, orange, yellow, and brown) of candy melts chocolate in 30-second increments.
On a baking tray lined with parchment paper, place a small spoonful of red candy melts onto the paper and put a pastry brush into the red. Quickly pull the brush downwards, creating a feather. Continue to the next red spoonful and brush down, creating another feather.
Repeat with the other candy melt colors. Make about 48 feathers (12 per color). Set aside to dry for 15-20 minutes. To remove the paper’s feathers, use the offset spatula to scrape off the dried pieces of candy.
Take two white candy melts (unmelted) and add a dot of brown candy melt on to the white pieces to create googling eyes.
On a parchment paper, spread a thin layer of yellow candy melts, and red candy melts. Then let each color sit for a few minutes until it’s matte and no longer shiny.
Use a sharp knife to cut the shapes of a triangle in the yellow candy melt for the beak and a turkey neck (or caruncles) out of the red candy melt. Allow to dry fully before separating the shapes from the paper.

Putting It All Together

Remove the cake layers from the freezer and unwrap the cake layers. Next, use a serrated knife to cut off the cakes’ dome to make the layers flat and even.
Add a small amount of ganache onto the center of the cake board. Layer one cake layer, cut side up onto the cake board. Pipe ⅔ cup of ganache and use an offset spatula to smooth the ganache layer.
Place another cake layer cut side down over the top. Repeat the process for another layer — Crumb coat with ganache and freeze for 30 minutes.
Add a thicker layer of whipped ganache to the cold cake. Use an offset spatula and cake scraper to make the sides and the top as smooth as possible.
Add the eyes, beak, and turkey neck to the side of the cake. Then add a dollop of ganache to a brown chocolate feather and stick on to the side of the cake. Repeat for the other side like the wings of the turkey.
Then carefully insert the colorful feathers into the top of the cake, creating the tail feathers.
Serve at room temperature and enjoy!

Happy Baking!

P.S. Hey, if you liked this tutorial, you really should check out Cake Decorating for Beginners, my online cake program. I coach you on everything I teach on these cake tutorials so that you can uplevel your baking and decorating skills. We 10x it so you get the results you want most. Like any new skill, it’s important to learn from the ground up to build a foundation so that you can take on any cake challenge. It is an investment your future self will thank you for. Check it out at XOKatieRosario.com/online-cake-course. I will see you there!

Watch The How-to Video Below:

Print Recipe

Thanksgiving Turkey Cake

Made with soft pumpkin spice cake layers, filled with whipped chocolate ganache and chocolate decorations.

Prep Time1

Cook Time50

Cooling/Decorating Time2 30

Total Time4 20

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Baking, Buttercream, Cake Decorating, Cake Recipe, pumpkin pie

Servings: 1 3(6-inch) layers or 2(8-inch) layers

Author: Katie

Ingredients

Pumpkin Spice Cake

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
6 large whole eggs
2 large egg yolks
3 cups cake flour (2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour & ¼ cup cornstarch)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons pumpkin pie spice
1 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Whipped Chocolate Ganache

20 ounces (or 3 cups) chocolate chips, semi-sweet
10 ounces (or 1 1/2 cups) heavy cream

Chocolate Decorations

6 ounces red candy melts
6 ounces orange candy melts
6 ounces yellow candy melts
2 ounces milk coating chocolate
2 ounces white candy melts

Instructions

Pumpkin Spice Cake

Preheat the oven to 350 °F. Spray three 6-inch round cake pans with non-stick spray, line the bottom of each pan with parchment paper, and spray again. Set aside.
In a medium-size bowl, whisk and stir together the all-purpose flour, cornstarch, baking powder, salt, and pumpkin pie spice. Set aside.
In the stand mixer bowl fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter, oil, and sugar on medium-high for 5 minutes.
Add the eggs, one at a time, to the stand mixer bowl and beat on medium until well incorporated.
Turn the mixer on low and add the flour mixture to the butter mixture until fully incorporated.
Pour in the buttermilk and vanilla extract. Mix on medium for another 30 seconds - scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Evenly distribute the cake batter among the three cake pans and bake for about 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of each cake comes out clean or with just a few moist crumbs.
Remove cakes from the oven and let cool in pans for 10 minutes before inverting onto cooling racks to cool completely. Wrap cakes in plastic wrap and place into the freezer to chill for 30 minutes.

Whipped Chocolate Ganache

Add semi-sweet chocolate chips to a small microwavable bowl. In another small microwavable bowl, heat the heavy cream to a light simmer for about 1 minute.
Pour hot, heavy cream over chocolate chips. Allow chocolate to melt for 1 minute. Use a whisk or rubber spatula to mix the chocolate and cream. Mix until its velvety smooth. If chocolate is still not melted, heat in the microwave in 15-second increments.
After the chocolate ganache has cooled, add the ganache to a clean stand mixer bowl fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on medium-high until the ganache has doubled in size and is light and fluffy.

Chocolate Decorations

In 4 small microwavable mixing bowls, melt each color (red, orange, yellow, and brown) of candy melts chocolate in 30-second increments.
On a baking tray lined with parchment paper, place a small spoonful of red candy melts onto the paper and put a pastry brush into the red. Quickly pull the brush downwards, creating a feather. Continue to the next red spoonful and brush down, creating another feather.
Repeat with the other candy melt colors. Make about 48 feathers (12 per color). Set aside to dry for 15-20 minutes. To remove the paper's feathers, use the offset spatula to scrape off the dried pieces of candy.
Take two white candy melts (unmelted) and add a dot of brown candy melt on to the white pieces to create googling eyes.
On a parchment paper, spread a thin layer of yellow candy melts, and red candy melts. Then let each color sit for a few minutes until it's matte and no longer shiny.
Use a sharp knife to cut the shapes of a triangle in the yellow candy melt for the beak and a turkey neck (or caruncles) out of the red candy melt. Allow to dry fully before separating the shapes from the paper.

Assemble

Remove the cake layers from the freezer and unwrap the cake layers. Next, use a serrated knife to cut off the cakes' dome to make the layers flat and even.
Add a small amount of ganache onto the center of the cake board. Layer one cake layer, cut side up onto the cake board. Pipe ⅔ cup of ganache and use an offset spatula to smooth the ganache layer.
Place another cake layer cut side down over the top. Repeat the process for another layer — Crumb coat with ganache and freeze for 30 minutes.
Add a thicker layer of whipped ganache to the cold cake. Use an offset spatula and cake scraper to make the sides and the top as smooth as possible.
Add the eyes, beak, and turkey neck to the side of the cake. Then add a dollop of ganache to a brown chocolate feather and stick on to the side of the cake. Repeat for the other side as the wings of the turkey.
Then carefully insert the colorful feathers into the top of the cake, creating the tail feathers.
Serve at room temperature and enjoy!

Notes

Read through all the ingredients and instructions so you can get a better idea of how much time and what you need to make this cake.
A single batch of this cake recipe makes three, 6-inch round cake layers or two 8-inch round cake layers. Double the cake recipe to make enough cake batter for three, 8-inch cake layers.
In this cake recipe, you need 1 cup buttermilk; if you don't have any buttermilk on hand, you can easily use 1 cup whole milk mixed with 1 Tablespoon lemon juice or white vinegar to make your own.
To make cake flour at home, mix 2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour and ¼ cup cornstarch. Sift or whisk together to get rid of any lumps.
Be careful not to overmix this cake batter, or else the cake will come out dense. Mix until all ingredients are well incorporated.
You can bake the cake layers ahead of time. Wrap the cake layers in plastic wrap and freeze up to one month.
You can make the ganache several days ahead of time and refrigerate for up to one month. Then take them out to come back to room temperature. Make sure the ganache is at room temperature before whipping to double in size.
To save time, you can make all the chocolate decorations ahead of time and wrap the baking trays holding all the decorating in plastic wrap until ready to decorate.
Serve the cake at room temperature and use a hot knife to cut and get clean slices.