I have absolutely neglected this blog lately, and for that I am sorry! As I probably mentioned, September I spent almost all of my baking time testing cake for our dear friends’ wedding because I wanted it to be just right. It was a success! I haven’t gotten any pictures back yet, but when I do, I’ll be sure to share them.
Last week, my youngest brother came to me and told me that he needed to bring in cupcakes for his class for his upcoming 12th birthday, and he wanted my help. He told me that one of the moms from his class actually had a gourmet cupcake business, and so everyone had been super impressed when they’d brought red velvet cupcakes for the class.
We started talking about what my brother likes. We talked about doing colossal mocha brownies, or pumpkin blondies, or tiny pies. Then we talked about things that were more like novelty items, like cake pops. I showed him Bakerella’s site with all the fancy cake pops on there. Then, I remembered something that Bakerella had posted a while back. Something they called Fast Food Fun.
“I know what to do,” I told my brother, and I pulled up the photos. The idea is to make a little “hamburger” brownie, on a cupcake “bun” and serve it with sugar cookie “french fries.”
My brother thought it was just about the most awesome thing in the world. I hardly ever use box mixes, but I told him that if we were going to be making brownies, cupcakes, cookies, AND decorating, we were going to use mixes.
We got little red and white paper trays at a party store to serve the treats in, and before he came home from school one afternoon, I prepared a family size box of brownies in a disposable pan. I made about 30 cupcakes out of a mix that’s supposed to make two dozen, figuring that if they were a little short, it would be more realistic, and he’d have a few more to go around. I doctored the cake mix a bit, adding some cinnamon (to make it look like it was flecked with grains) and some citrusy and vanilla extracts to bump the flavors up a bit. I waited until my brother got home to do the cookies so that he’d be involved in the baking process.
We cut slice & bake cookies into strips, and then cut them again when they were still cooling to get them into thin, french fry shapes. It was a bit painstaking, but not as painstaking as making rolled sugar cookies would have been, since you know how I love doing that.
Finally, it was time for the exciting part. We cut the cupcakes in half. We mixed the store-bought frosting with gel food coloring to make mustard, ketchup, and lettuce. We filled my piping bags, and we went to town!
Here I am pretending to pipe so my mom could take some photos. That’s my brother’s hand sneaking in there to put some bun tops on, but he’s a little young for me to be plastering pictures of him all over the internet. (Give him a few years and he can do that for himself!)
We finished up by brushing the tops of the cupcakes with water and sprinkling sesame seeds on the top. Here’s one of the finished trays:
I think one of the funniest things about this is that I haven’t eaten a real hamburger in about 17 years. (I’ve had veggie burgers, of course, but I haven’t eaten beef in that long.)
We put them in a giant cake box for easy transport.
They really do look like we’re serving sliders!
This was a super fun project. Thanks to Bakerella for the idea!
This is amazing! Not only do I absolutely love it, but I want to eat it!
http://www.feathersandfutons.blogspot.com
Thanks so much! I had a look at your blog and I love the little apple pies baked in the apple. I shared them on the Measuring Spoons Facebook. :)
Cat — these are awesome! Lucky younger brother!
Thanks, Elizabeth! A few of my friends said the same thing, that I get the “Best Sibling Ever” award. :) I’m glad I ran into you and you mentioned the blog – it gave me the little push I needed to get back to posting.
On the veganizing them straight away :D
Veganizing them would be super, super easy. We used box mixes for these, and there are a few natural box mixes that you can get at places like Whole Foods that are vegan, then I’d do commercial egg replacer or flax for the eggs (the flax would even add to them looking more like bread!). Then, of course, you just need your favorite mylk for the rest. I used Wilton’s food colorings, and from what I understand, those are completely plant-based.
If you’re going to bake all the stuff from scratch, I’d recommend doing it in two stages because this was a big project! Basically, I’d make your own “mixes” by combining all your dry ingredients in tupperware or ziplock bags on the first day. Then, the second day, you’ll be able to just whip the stuff together and really be able to focus on the decorating. You could also make the “fries” completely in advance and put them in the freezer until you’re ready to use them, but make sure you’ve totally cooled them off first to help them avoid sticking together in the freezer. :D
I did this for my niece a few years ago, and she loved them. So, I’m glad your nephew loved them too! I made my “lettuce” a bit differently, just used coconut I had colored green. I also included a “ketchup cup” of red frosting to dip the french fries in – the little kids loved that the most. And, since I hadn’t seen the bakerella post yet, I put the sesame seeds on top of the cupcakes before I baked them. That worked out well too!