Prepare cupcake tins by placing paper liners inside, then heat oven to 350°F (175°C).

Into a bowl, sift together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

In a separate bowl, whisk eggs, whole milk, oil, and vanilla until blended.

Pour the egg mixture into the dry ingredients and mix on medium speed for 3 minutes until thoroughly incorporated.

Divide batter among the lined cups, filling each about two-thirds full.

Place in oven and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 20–25 minutes.

Take out of oven and let cool in the pan for 10 minutes.

Move cupcakes onto a wire rack and allow to cool completely, at least 1 hour.

Whip the softened butter by itself until it reaches a smooth texture.

Into the creamed butter, add cocoa and powdered sugar alternately with heavy cream, beating until smooth and thick.

If the mixture is too thick, incorporate additional heavy cream; if too thin, incorporate additional powdered sugar.

Transfer frosting into a large pastry bag fitted with a large frosting tip.

Twist the open end of the bag to force frosting down to the tip.

Apply frosting to cupcakes, beginning at the outer edge and moving inward toward the center.

In a mixing bowl, combine all icing ingredients except food coloring and beat on medium speed for 4 minutes.

Should the icing lack sufficient stiffness, incorporate ¼ cup (30 g) powdered sugar.

Separate icing equally into three bowls.

Into the first bowl, stir in several drops of orange gel food coloring until evenly blended.

Into the second bowl, mix in drops of red gel food coloring until well combined.

Keep the third bowl of icing white.

Transfer each colored icing into separate frosting bags fitted with #5 tips. Twist the open end to push icing to the tip.

Use the cupcake picture as a visual reference.

Place Fudge Stripe cookies with the striped side facing down.

Set a candy corn piece on the fudge side of the cookie.

Take off the candy corn and apply white icing as "glue".

Position the candy corn with its white tip aimed toward the cookie's center.

Let dry for up to 30 minutes, verifying they are dry.

After drying, insert the cookie into the back of the frosted cupcake to form the "tail".

To create turkey eyes, split two Oreo cookies per cupcake, preserving as much filling as possible on one half; throw away the other half.

With white icing as "glue", fasten a chocolate M&M (eyeball) onto the Oreo half that has filling.

Let the eyeball (M&M) dry.

As the eyeball dries, pipe a dot of orange icing for the nose. Wait 30 seconds for the nose to dry.

Pipe red icing for the waddle directly beneath the nose. Wait 30 seconds to dry before putting eyes on the cupcake. Test dryness by lightly touching the top of the waddle.

Place a small dab of white icing on the back of each eye and set it onto the cupcake.

Use the picture of the finished cupcakes for proper eye placement.

Let dry a bit longer before moving.