Pilgrim Hats and a Turkey Cake

So I am finally getting around to posting about Thanksgiving.  I know I had mastitis a couple days before TG but I was determined to make this Turkey cake I saw over at the Family Fun website.

I made my 2 butter cakes in bowls (they were the light meat) and a spice cake in a bread pan (the dark meat, and it overflowed all over my oven UGH).  I also made 2 pecan pies.  Then I packed it all up to take on the trip to Lynchburg (just 3 hrs away).  It took us 7 hrs to get everything packed and in the car (so much more work with 5 kids and a dog to take with you).  Then at my in-laws house we (that being me, Charlie and my mother in law) assembled the cake.  Here is how it turned out.

The icing kind of melted a bit on the way to my sister Kim's house where we had Thanksgiving dinner (it was another 45 min or so drive)  But I think it turned out great!! 

I put the 2 bowls together to form the body (after doing some repair work and shaping). Then I carved 1 leg out of the spice cake and Charlie did the other and we skewered them to the body.  I decided to put the legs directly on the plate instead of trying to attach them to my turkey mid body like they show in the instructions. That was Charlies idea and he was right, they never would have held up.  Charlies mom makes cakes for people, so she was very intrigued by the whole thing.  She used her coloring stuff to mix up the frosting color, then she frosted it for me (as I was sewing a dog coat for Ptolemy because it was getting cold out).  I cut the extra cake scraps into squares to make the stuffing and Charlie decorated it with the oranges and cranberries!

Everyone got a kick out of it!!

We also made these cute Pilgrim hats

 The idea was to make them with the kids but they were too interested in watching the new Ben 10 Alien Swarm movie (my sister Karla actually worked on the set of the movie).  We have been waiting for it to come out for like 9mo so they were pretty excited about it.  I did get Piper to help some though.

It was super easy.  Dip large marshmallows in melted chocolate chips.  Place them on fudge stripe cookies (upside down) and then mix up some yellow frosting to make the hat buckles!

All the kids loved them . . . next time I am going to have to make more!

The spread