Striped fall cake layers with vanilla bean buttercream, this cake is just as fun on the inside and outside as it is on top with this giant Turkey cookie cake topper!

Thanksgiving is almost here! I can’t believe it’s only in a couple weeks. Time seems to fly and stand still at the same time this year, it’s bizarre. I feel like it’s been tricky to plan out Thanksgiving – can we meet together or can’t we? Some weeks I feel like we have the green light to do it, but then we go back again to not being able to. However Thanksgiving looks for you and your family this year, I hope you still find a way to make it special. Even if that’s just making a fun cake like this one at home with your loved ones!

DOUBLE THE CAKE:

For the cake layers inside this cake, I doubled my Vanilla Cake recipe. It’s tender, always turns out perfect, and is easily able to change colors to fit whatever theme you need. My vanilla recipe usually makes three 6″ rounds, but by doubling it, you can get four 8″ rounds. The reason why I didn’t do the smaller cake is because this turkey on top is huge, and I didn’t want it to swallow the cake, haha.

Split the doubled vanilla cake batter evenly into four bowls. Dye one of them brown, one of them orange, one of them yellow, and one of them red. Make sure to not overmix your batter when adding in your color! Add them to your prepared 8″ cake pans, and bake them right up. Let them cool, wrap them up in plastic wrap, and freeze for at least 2 hours. Frosting the cake while it’s cold will make it much easier.

Seeing stripes

For the buttercream, I used my go-to vanilla bean buttercream. Make two batches and use half of one of them for the colors on the stripes. For the stripes, it’s SUPER simple, it just takes a little faith in the process, really.

HOW TO:

  1. Crumb coat your cake, freeze.
  2. After making your buttercream, hand stir it with a wooden spoon to remove any air bubbles. This will make it easier to smooth everything out.
  3. Using a stripe cake comb, pull the cake comb around the entire outside of the cake, creating indents. If there are spots that aren’t perfect, add on more buttercream and pull the cake comb around the outside of the cake again. Repeat if necessary. You want this cake indent to be perfect so that you can have clean stripes.
  4. Freeze cake for at least 20 minutes.
  5. Pipe in the colored buttercream.
  6. Using a cake scraper, scrape around the outside of the cake. It won’t look perfect at first, but keep scraping. Keep scraping (not too hard). And you’ll see the stripes start to peek through. That’s it!

Add the sprinkles on the bottom and top rim of the cake. I LOVE these fall Wilton sprinkles so much – especially those teeny tiny pumpkins! Make sure to add the sprinkles on when the cake is still “wet” (or in other words, when you’ve just finished scraping the sides of your cake down).

TURKEY IN THE ROOM

This turkey is absolutely the star of the show! It’s actually made with a Wilton kit, and the kit comes with everything (cookies already pre-baked, buttercream, bags, and piping tips). It makes it a breeze to throw together. I would assemble it the day before you frost your cake, that way it has time to dry completely before adding it.

HERE’s a link to the kit. 🙂

And that’s it! I hope you have as much fun making this fun turkey cake as I did! I felt like every component (cake layers, buttercream stripes, sprinkles, and topper) really tie together beautifully in such a fun way that just screams turkey day!

As always, if you create this cake, I’d love to see it! Make sure to tag me on Instagram @bakingwithblondie #bakingwithblondie.

Xo,

Mandy