Hamburger Cupcakes

I read a blog by a guy in Milwaukee.  Among other things, he shares some of his baking creations.  I’ve had him link me to recipes for a couple of the cookies he makes for the holidays.  The cakes he makes for birthdays are beautiful. 

I saw on a TV show that cupcakes are the new wine – you know, that something you can take to a friends gathering.  It can be part of the spread or something for the host later.  When I saw John’s cupcakes, I figured I’d have to try them.

I’m not the artist he is, plus I put my skills more on the side of cooking rather than baking – but they weren’t a failure.

If there is a next time, here’s what I learned:

Top Bun – the top of the bun developed an odd lip.  I don’t know if it was the cake mix or the pan.  I had hoped that baking them in the pan without a liner would give me a smoother curve, but I think the opposite was true.  I was going to sprinkle some raw sugar (large granules) instead of sesame seeds on the top, but forgot.  I’ve heard of using orange juice or corn syrup to make it sticky for sprinkling after baking but I didn’t try it.

Beef patty – I thought the bottom of the cupcake worked better than the top part for making beef.  The top was too rounded.  I might try baking a dollop of batter on a cookie sheet instead of trimming a cupcake.

Frosting – I used a standard butter cream from a recipe on the internet.  I cut the recipe down so I ended up with 2 cups of frosting instead of three.  Two cups should get you a dozen burgers.  Go ahead with 3 cups if you like lots of frosting.  I mixed about 1/2 of it with green for the lettuce and mixed the rest with red, yellow, and red + yellow to make ketchup, mustard, and cheese (most cheese in the US is orange).  I used the cheese to attach the burger to the bottom bun, the ketchup, mustard, and lettuce on the top. 

I found it very convenient to scoop some of the frosting in a mini ziplock baggy with the food colouring – mix it and squeeze it in the same container.  If you wanted to get really fancy, I suppose you could use a thicker frosting for the lettuce and form more realistic leaves.