Monday, March 9, 2009

Hamburger Cake and Fries

I made this cake for Tyler's birthday and I got a lot of questions about it, so here's how I did it.
It seems like a lot of directions, but it was pretty easy...just time consuming.

CAKE:
1 box of white, yellow, or pound cake mix(I used white)
1 box of fudge brownie mix
1 tub of white frosting

CONDIMENTS:
lots of airheads
5 green airheads
3 white airheads
4 red airheads
**This is what I used, but if you're more creative and can think of something better, do it, because I think this wasn't the best idea and I'd do it again differently...but it worked.
Slivered almonds (or rice crispies)
1 Tub of Whipped Cream

FRIES:
Sugar Cookies (I've got a good, easy recipe if you need one)

KETCHUP:
It only took about a 1/4 tub of frosting, if that, so I used some extra I already had.
*Add red food coloring until you reach desired color and mix well.
*Place the frosting in a ziplock bag

OTHER THINGS YOU'LL NEED:
Food coloring
-red -blue -yellow
9" round cake pan(s)

Sorry, I don't have any official directions...these are just off the top of my head

DIRECTIONS:

*Bake White Cake Mix in two greased 9" round cake pans according to package directions. Let cool.
*Bake Fudge Brownie mix in one 9" round cake pan according to package directions. Let cool. (I placed wax paper inside my pan and greased that, for easier removal)
*Make sugar cookie dough. The dough typically needs time to set in the fridge for at least an hour.
*Start on condiments
-Place the airheads, either one or a few at a time, in their appropriate colors, in a microwave safe bowl with a little bit of water, to melt. (It was between 10 and 15 seconds for me....and they will be hot!) They cool off quickly so be sure to mold fast. You can only do one piece of condiment at a time.
From these I made lettuce, tomatoes, and with yellow food coloring- the cheese (the lettuce I spread into any shape and then curled up the edges a little with my finger, the tomatoes I molded into flat circles, and the cheese, while it was still hot added a drop of yellow food coloring, kneaded that in, and molded them into triangles.)
-The frysauce (it was supposed to be mustard, but the color didn't turn out right) was a mixture of red and yellow food coloring. I did one part red and two parts yellow for the frysauce. Place in ziplock bag.

By this time my cookies were ready to bake.
*Roll out cookie dough about 1/4" thick and with a pizza cutter grid the dough into long skinny strips. Place on cookie sheet and follow sugar cookie recipe directions. In between each sheet of cookies baking, I worked on my frosting for the burger.

*Frosting for buns- I used one part blue, one part red, one part yellow.
Mix and add more until it is your desired brown. (I ended up using like 10 parts of all 3 three to achieve the color I wanted)

THE CONSTRUCTION:

-CAKE-
*Choose which white cake would look better on top- one that has a more even round top- and set aside.
*Take the other cake out of the pan and place it on a plate or cookie sheet. Cut off the rounded top so that it's flat and the other layers can easily be stacked on it.
*Frost both cakes; reserving a little frosting for touch ups at the end... your fingers will mess it up a little in the process of moving. No need to frost the parts of the buns that won't be seen, unless, of course, you just love frosting!
*Set bottom bun on your serving tray or plate.
*Frost the top of the bottom bun with Whipped Cream, so that it looks like mayonnaise.
*Take lettuce leaves and place speratically around rim of burger, so that they will peek through.
*Take brownie round out of pan and place on top of lettuce
(Optional-- I tried to mash up brown cookies to mix up with chocolate frosting- to cover the brownie with, but the cookies I bought, I didn't know, had caramel in them so they didn't crumble. This might give a good texture effect on the burger. The brownie alone had good texture though too---Instead I put chocolate frosting on top of brownie...so it wasn't visible, because I was worried the cake would taste too dry with out much frosting)
*Place your tomatoes and cheese on the rim of the brownie, so they will peek through.
*Use your frysauce (or mustard) frosting to fill in any exposed sections, or wherever desired. To do so, cut off corner of zip lock and squeeze through hole.(If you're having difficulties squeezing frosting through... don't force it. Your hole may be too small, and you might have a minor explosion if you don't make the hole a little bigger)
*Place top bun on top of tomatoes, cheese, and frysauce.
*Touch up bun frosting where needed.
*Place Slivered almond pieces on top to look like sesame seeds.
***Side note*** Be sure to place your layers of brownie and cake on straight. I didn't so mine kept sliding...and that's why my mayo is squirting out so much. If you need to, you can place some sort of dowel in the center of the cakes, to keep it all in place.

-FRIES-
*Place sugar cookies on tray in desired display
*With ketchup frosting in zip lock, cut tip off one corner of the bag and squeeze frosting through hole. (If you're having difficulties squeezing frosting through... don't force it. Your hole may be too small, and you might have a minor explosion if you don't make the hole a little bigger)
*You can also spiral a mound of ketchup up for dipping

(So... if you're wondering what is on the fries and under the ketchup frosting , it's blackberry pie/cake filling. I was going to use strawberry pie filling, but before I went out to buy it, I noticed I already had some blackberry filling and the picture on the outside of the can looked red enough to me. After opening the can I realized it wasn't very red at all and added food coloring to it in a ziplock bag to try to make it more red. I squeezed it onto the fries, but it looked like maple syrup! That's why I tried covering it up with frosting. The hint of blackberry was pretty tasty though.)

I believe that's it, but I may be forgetting something. Congrats if you got through all that! Just ask if you have questions. Enjoy!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

a maze ing!!!!

Anonymous said...

that turned out so good!