Easy Decorated Turkey Cookies for Thanksgiving


Easy turkey cookies -- a cookie decorating tutorial

If parent guilt was an Olympic sport...I would be a medalist. I worry about what I'm teaching my kids if I let them eat dessert *gasp* every night. I worry about what kind of parent I am if I let them watch Netflix more than once during a school week. (And two days? THREE DAYS??!! I'm basically a monster.) I rarely do crafts with them unless I'm desperate. They play outside sometimes. And once in a while they wear weather appropriate clothing to school on purpose. I've been known to intentionally feed them quesadillas for dinner. And during the summer...my toddler ate tomatoes and strawberries straight from the garden without even washing them. Trust me. If there is something a parent could conceivably feel bad about themselves for...I've already booked a one way ticket on that guilt trip. But my biggest shame....

 ... is that I just DO NOT LIKE PLAY-DOUGH. I've tried. I know it's "good for kids" to be creative. I get that it's a "tactile experience" and "fun" and all that good stuff that is going fill me with regret  when I look back on their young years.  But I don't care. Judge me if you want. I still hate it.  I hate the smell of it. And It feels weird. And It makes a GIANT MESS all over my house because...kids. It gets crusted into the crevices of my chairs and in their shoes and hair. And then they leave it out on the table for hours and it's worthless. For years we had a box of play-dough hidden in a cupboard. Every time my child would come home with a sparkling new container from a birthday party, or Christmas, or Grandma...it would go into the cupboard never to be seen from again. I just couldn't do it.

And then early this summer...I had a breakthrough. I started thinking of play-dough as disposable. We now have "Play-dough Week" at our house like it's some kind of festival and they can make a huge mess and let it dry out all they want because once it's too dry to play with anymore...it's gone. And then they go to bed (like perfect angels, of course) and I binge watch Netflix while removing the dried out bits of play-dough purgatory from my furniture and carpet.


I have to give up a night of cookie decorating...but it's worth it to get rid of that box of shame and play-dough from the cupboard. Who knew that play-dough and mom-guilt fit in the same box?! Luckily... these turkey cookies are so easy that I could probably squeeze them into the last few Netflix episodes of the night...even after all the play-dough. And even better...it means I get to use the BRAND NEW TURKEY CUTTER I designed for Ann Clark Cookie Cutters!!! (Wouldn't that also make an awesome seashell or tree?!)

Easy turkey cookies -- a cookie decorating tutorial

1. Outline the feather part of the turkey with medium consistency coral icing and a #3 tip. Immediately pipe a blue, white, and yellow rainbow. Use a scriber or toothpick to drag through the icing toward the bottom center of the coral icing. Let it dry for at least an hour.
2. With medium consistency brown icing, pipe the turkey body. I like to start by piping a tear drop shape for the body and a circle for the head. It helps me keep it from getting too wonky. Let that dry for an hour.
3. Use orange icing and a #1.5 tip to pipe a diamond shape for the beak. Pipe some feet with the same icing. Pipe two dots with white icing for the eyes. Add two tiny dots of brown icing to the center of the eyes.
4. Put a #1.5 tip on the coral icing and pipe the waddle on next to the beak. DONE!




Wet-on-wet is always tricky to explain with words and pictures. Hopefully it makes more sense with this video!!


NEED MORE??

Grab the cutters: TURKEY, TEAR DROP LEAF, OAK LEAF, ACORN, BOW, and PUMPKIN

See how I made the LEAF COOKIES here. 

Callye from Sweet Sugarbelle and I made turkey face cookies the same weekend years ago. They are BOTH still some of my favorite turkey designs ever! 
Get the SWEET SUGARBELLE TURKEY FACE tutorial 
or grab the LILALOA TURKEY HEAD tutorial.  

Easy turkey cookies -- a cookie decorating tutorial
PS: I've got another fun turkey tutorial for you later this week!!


Georganne
Georganne

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