How to Make a Turkey Cookie Platter

Written by Mike Tamplin • Oct 01, 2019

If you've been following this blog for a while, this new turkey cookie platter might look a little familiar.

One of my favorite Thanksgiving cookie designs of years past is this turkey cookie. It was such a favorite, I made him a couple of times over the years. I've always contemplated converting that turkey cookie into a full-blown cookie platter but I just never found enough time.

Well I was finally able to find the time this year. Using a previously released cookie platter and with a few simple additional cookies, here's how you can recreate this turkey cookie platter for yourself and your loved ones for the upcoming holiday.

Turkey Cookie Platter Cutters

Just added to the shop is this new turkey cookie platter set.

This turkey platter consists of 4 cookie cutters: a turkey head and wing, a circle body and pleated feather cookie cutter. The circle body and pleated feather cookie cutters are reused from this bunting platter cookie cutter set from the 4th of July.

If you previously purchased the bunting platter set, you can opt to just buy the 2-piece turkey set as an add-on.

Template for the Turkey Cookie Platter

To help with the decorating process, I made a PDF template of all the Thanksgiving platter designs, including this turkey cookie platter.

Click the link below for the downloadable template PDF file.

2019 Thanksgiving Platter Cookie Templates

If you have a Kopykake or Pico projector, just print it out (or pull it up on your mobile device) and you are good to go. For those without a projector, follow the suggested steps below by cutting out the template and tracing the design onto the cookie with an edible food marker.

The Decorating Process

For the colors used for these turkey cookie pieces, you will need the following suggested colors:

White flood royal icing (I used Americolor Bright White.)
Light Blue icing (I mixed Americolor Wedgewood with a the tiniest touch of Super Black.)
Darker Blue icing (I used more food gel concentration of the Light Blue icing color above.)
Dark Brown icing (I used Americolor Chocolate Brown.)
Tan Brown icing (I used Americolor Warm Brown.)
Yellow icing (I used Americolor Egg Yellow)
Black icing (I used Americolor Super Black.)
Red icing (I used Americolor Super Red.)

Step 1

For those without a projector, begin by making a guideline for where the head and beak sections should be. I made a template with template plastic from the PDF file above and used a food marker to draw the guideline on the cookie.

Step 2

Start by filling in the head area, let that set, then fill in the neck area with tan brown icing. Let this icing set for about 15 minutes.

Step 3

Once the head and neck icing had time to set, add the eye detail and the lower beak. Allow this icing to crust over.

Then finish the head by filling in the beak and the red snood separately.

Step 4

Moving on to the tail feather pieces, I first made a template and marked guidelines for the different sections.

Step 5

Start by filling in the left side sections with a thin layer of icing, as shown. Let that icing set, then fill the right side sections with thicker/puffier layer of icing. Shake the cookie to smooth the icing surface.

Repeat this 8 times for each of the 8 feather pieces.

Step 6

Lastly, outline and flood the body and the wing pieces using brown and dark brown icing, respectively.

For the platter, I actually ended up using 2 body circles stacked on top of each other in the final assembly.

Video Tutorial

The steps above are summarized in this time-lapsed video I put together.

Here's the finished turkey cookie platter all assembled. Overall, I ended up using 8 feather pieces, a head piece, a wing piece, and 2 body circle pieces stacked on one another.

In total, this platter took 12 cookies for me to complete.