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A Chocolate Thanksgiving Cake frosted with rich chocolate icing is decorated with a turkey made of colorful icing, featuring red, orange, and yellow feathers, and big eyes. The cake sits on a white plate against a festive Thanksgiving-themed background.

Chocolate Thanksgiving Cake

This Chocolate Thanksgiving Cake features four rich chocolate layers with chocolate frosting and a colorful piped turkey design. It’s a fun, festive dessert to make ahead for your Thanksgiving celebration.

Course Cake, desserts
Cuisine American
Keyword chocolate thanksgiving cake
Servings 12

Ingredients

  • unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 box 15.25oz chocolate cake mix (omit ingredients listed on box to make cake)
  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • 1 cup sugar
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 1 cup milk
  • ½ cup butter melted
  • 3 eggs
  • 32 oz Chocolate Frosting (2 tubs)
  • 16 oz White Frosting
  • red, yellow, orange food coloring gel
  • 2 candy eyes

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 and grease 2, 8" baking pans with nonstick cooking spray and dust with unsweetened cocoa powder. Set aside. 

  2. In a large mixing bowl, add cake mix, flour and sugar and mix well.

  3. Add sour cream, milk, butter and eggs and beat with a mixer for 2 minutes. Batter will be thick and stiff. 

  4. Divide batter equally and pour into prepared cake pans. Bake for 25-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let stand to cool completely. 

  5. When ready to frost cake, remove 1/3 cup of chocolate frosting and put it into a piping bag. Set aside. 

  6. Slice each cake round in half to create 4 rounds total. If necessary, trim the tops of each round so they are level.

  7. Add a small amount of chocolate frosting onto the bottom of a serving platter and press one round onto the plate.

  8. Top with chocolate icing. Repeat, adding chocolate icing between each layer and adding chocolate icing on the top. Set aside. 

  9. Mix at least 1/3 cup of white icing for each of the three colors, red, orange and yellow and tint the frosting. Place into a pastry bag fitted with a 104 tip. 

  10. Begin with the red color and pipe a fan like half circle onto the top of the cake with red frosting.

  11. Repeat with the orange and yellow frosting, overlapping each color slightly.

  12. Snip a tip in the reserved chocolate icing and draw a turkey body and wings onto the center of the feathers.

  13. Add 2 candy eyes to the turkey to create a face. 

  14. Place a small amount of red frosting and orange frosting into separate resealable sandwich bags and snip the corner tip. Carefully pipe and orange beak and orange feet onto the turkey and a red wattle next to the beak. 

  15. Slice cake and serve immediately or loosely cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.