Thanksgiving Cupcake Ideas

Bringing your family and friends together at Thanksgiving is a great time to show off your recipes, but don’t forget about dessert! This year, try shaking things up a little, and change up your usual pies. Try making some Thanksgiving cupcakes for some delicious desserts that everyone will enjoy. The great thing about cupcakes is that you don’t need a knife to cut pieces, or to take time to serve them! Just grab one and dig in! Try out these Thanksgiving cupcake flavors and Thanksgiving cupcake decorations that we’ve gathered for you!

 

Try out these decoration tips with any of your favorite cupcake recipes, and make them perfect for Thanksgiving:

Pilgrim Hat Decorations

These decorations look great on any type of frosting as a yummy cupcake topper! Simply use frosting to glue a round, chocolate covered shortbread cookie, chocolate side up, to an upside-down mini peanut butter cup. Then use some yellow frosting to pipe on a ribbon and little buckle to the hat. Put this decoration on any cupcake!

This is a great Thanksgiving cupcake for kids, as they’ll love the colorful turkey! Just frost your favorite cupcake with chocolate frosting, really layering on the frosting so it makes a substantial mound. Press a Nutter Butter cookie into the cupcake, so only one part sticks out. This will be the head. Decorate the face however you would like. Use multicolored gummy candy to make the tail. Fruit roll candy works well for this. Just cut it into small feather-like shapes and support it with more frosting. If your “feathers” are long, put a tooth pick inside them to support them.

Try your hand at these Thanksgiving cupcake ideas with some great flavor combinations:

Espresso Cupcake

The rich coffee flavor of this cupcake will go perfectly with your after-dinner coffee. Pair this cake with a rich buttercream frosting to balance out the bitterness of espresso. You could even try a cinnamon buttercream frosting and blend the espresso and cinnamon flavors for an indulgent treat.

Sweet Potato Cupcake

Try out this spin on the classic Thanksgiving sweet potato casserole. Make a sweet potato cake that is just sweet enough to pass as dessert. Then top it with sticky marshmallow frosting. You can use a cooking torch to quickly harden the top of the marshmallow to give it that toasty flavor.

Pumpkin Pie Cupcake

This sounds like one of the most classic of all Thanksgiving cupcake recipes, but this particular cupcake is different. The recipe makes the outside of the cupcake crisp up like piecrust, and the inside stay soft like pie filling. Top it with whipped cream and drizzle with caramel and pecans.

 

 
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line 12 muffin tins with cupcake liners. In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin pie spice, removing all lumps. In a larger bowl, mix together the pumpkin puree, white sugar, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, and half and half. Whisk in the dry ingredients and mix until smooth. Spoon into the cupcake liners, filling about 1/3 of the way. Bake for 20 minutes or until the top is golden brown, and cool completely before serving.

Finally, if you're hosting Thanksgiving this year, send a Thanksgiving invitation online to set the tone for your event and share important details Customize your favorite Thanksgiving invitation, send via text or email, and gather RSVPs in minutes.

Not hosting this year? Send Thanksgiving eCards with a special written message inside and deliver by text or email. Add a video message and gift card for an extra special surprise.