Turkey Donuts You Can Make With The Kids

Last Updated on October 18, 2024

These Turkey Donuts are adorable and so easy to make.

Grab the kids to enjoy a fun activity together and then enjoy them as a treat. For once, instead of griping at the kids for playing with their food, we can help them have fun with it.

If you want to continue the fun with your kids and keep them occupied, have them cut out these printable Thanksgiving joke napkin rings, wrap them around the napkins and help set the dinner table.

How do you Keep Kids Engaged While Helping in the Kitchen?

Letting kids help in the kitchen is a great way to bond with your child and makes wonderful memories and traditions. It also helps with their child development and learning.

• Read through the recipe together before you begin and let them read whatever words they can, and then you can help them sound out the rest.
• Let them help you gather and set out the ingredients. Since you just read the recipe, your kids can help you put the ingredients in the order you’re going to use them.
• The kids can help you count the ingredients. Have them count out the 5 or 6 candy corns for each donut you’re going to make.
• Depending on the age of your child, let them follow the steps in the recipe and make what they can. For this recipe, they should be able to do almost all of the steps.
• Play music while you make the donuts. There’s lots of fun Thanksgiving songs you can listen to, or you can let your kids choose their favorite music to play.
• Tell stories as you decorate the turkeys. You can either have the kids make up fun stories about the turkeys or you can tell them the story of Thanksgiving, either by reading a book or just sharing what you know about the history (or your kids can share what they learned in school).

❤️ Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Besides being adorable, you’re going to love all the other reasons for making these turkey donuts:

• Convenient: Since you don’t have to bake anything for this recipe, these donuts are so convenient to make.
• Fun to make: You and your kids are going to have so much fun making these turkeys together. If they have any friends over during Thanksgiving vacation, it would be a fun activity to keep them occupied.
• Taste delicious: Chocolate donuts, candy and frosting — definitely a delicious treat.

If you want to try a similar recipe made using pretzels instead of donuts, try these Rolo pretzel turkeys.

🥘 Ingredients

You won’t believe how easy these turkey donuts are to make. You only need a few simple items to make them.

• Chocolate mini donuts: These will be the body of the turkey. You can buy any brand you prefer.
• Candy corn: The versatile candy is for the feathers and the beak of the turkey. It doesn’t matter what brand you buy and you can even vary the kind of candy corn you use to make it more colorful.
• Candy eyes: Give your turkey a personality with these cute and edible eyes.
• Red cookie icing: This will be used to make the beak and attach the eyes.
• Fall mix sprinkles: You can use the pumpkin sprinkles from this mix for the feet. If the sprinkles mix you have doesn’t include pumpkins, you can use the leaves as feet instead.

See recipe card for complete list of ingredients and quantities

🔀 Substitutions

If you don’t have the ingredients you need, see if you have these instead:

Chocolate mini donuts: Use vanilla mini donuts if you want a lighter flavor or look. You can also used glazed mini donuts for added sweetness and a sticky surface that can hold the candy corn more easily.

Candy corn: In case you don’t like candy corn, try using mini licorice twists to mimic the feathers instead.

Candy eyes: Use mini chocolate chips if you don’t have candy eyes.

Red cookie icing: You can use melted red candy melts or red gel icing instead.

Fall mix sprinkles: Small pieces of almonds or pecans can mimic feet. You can also try small pieces of chocolate-covered sunflower seeds or mini M&Ms.

🥄 Equipment Needed / Helpful Tools

You don’t really need very many things to make this recipe.

• Small bowls: It would be helpful to put your ingredients in small bowls so it’s easier to get when you’re ready for that ingredient.
• Kitchen counter mat: Having a mat you can put on the counter as you assemble the donuts would make things easier. There are individual mats or there are even mats as long as your whole counter.
• Thanksgiving plate: Make the treat extra special by serving it on a cute Thanksgiving plate.

🔪 How to Make Turkey Donuts

Have fun making memories with your kids as you make these turkey donuts together.

Step 1: Prepare Turkey to Stand

First, you need to slice off a small part of the bottom edge of the donut. This will create a flat surface that will enable the turkeys to stand up instead of roll away.

Step 2: Make Feathers

Next is the fun part for the kids. For the feathers, gently push in 5 to 6 candy corn around the edge of the donut.

Insert the pointy end so that the flat end sticks out. If you use a variety of candy corn (both the yellow bases and the brown bases), you can either alternate each feather or create two different types of turkey donuts (those with yellow-tipped feathers and those with brown-tipped feathers).

Step 3: Add Eyes

To attach the candy eyes to your turkey donuts, add a small dab of icing to hold each eye in place.

Step 4: Add Beak

To form each turkey’s beak, insert a piece of candy corn in the middle of the donut with the pointy end facing out.

Step 5: Final Touches

Now you just need to add a couple of final touches. For the feet, insert two orange pumpkin or leaf sprinkles from the Fall mix sprinkles near the bottom edge of the donut.

Then, draw the turkey’s snood next to the beak with red icing.

Repeat as often as needed to create an entire flock of Turkey Donuts.

❓ Recipe FAQs

🙏 Pairing

These are my favorite dishes to serve with Turkey donuts:

Ready to get cooking? Print off the recipe card below or toggle on Cook Mode to keep your screen from going dark while you follow along on your phone or tablet.

📋 Recipe

Turkey Donuts

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Corinne Schmitt

Get the kids in on the Thanksgiving prep and recruit them to make these adorable turkey donuts.

4.96 from 64 votes

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Prep Time 5 minutes mins

Total Time 5 minutes mins

Course Snack

Cuisine American

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Equipment

• ▢
  small bowls
• ▢
  Kitchen counter mat
• ▢
  Thanksgiving plate

Ingredients

  

• ▢ chocolate mini donuts
• ▢ candy corn
• ▢ candy eyes
• ▢ red cookie icing
• ▢ Fall mix sprinkles

Get ingredients with

Instructions

 

• Slice off a small part of the bottom edge of the donut so it makes a flat surface for the ‘turkey’ to stand.
  chocolate mini donuts
• Carefully insert 5 to 6 candy corn into the top edge of the donut to make the feathers. Be sure to insert the pointed end first.
  candy corn
• Add the eyes, using a dab of icing as glue.
  candy eyes, red cookie icing
• Insert another candy into the donut’s hole to make the beak, with the pointed end sticking out.
• For the feet, remove the pumpkin shaped or leaf sprinkles from the Fall mix sprinkles. Carefully insert them near the bottom edge of the donut to make the feet.
  Fall mix sprinkles
• Using the red cookie icing, draw the turkey’s snood next to the beak.
• Repeat as needed to create an entire flock of turkey donuts.

Notes

Recipe FAQs

What do I do if my donut crumbles when I insert the candy corn?

You can dip the ends in a little melted chocolate or icing before inserting to act as glue.

 

Can I make these in advance?

It’s best to assemble them on the same day you plan to serve them to keep the candy corn and other decorations from getting soggy. If you must prepare them ahead, store them in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 24 hours.

 

Can I use homemade donuts instead of store-bought?

Absolutely! If you prefer homemade, just make sure the donuts are fully cooled before decorating. Mini chocolate donuts are ideal, but any small donut can work with this recipe.

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