One of TheMisterT’s employees is hosting a department potluck barbecue/cookout this afternoon. Said MisterT is making a couple of side dishes and I signed up for a sweet baked good. Thus, Hamburger Cupcakes! OK, Cheeseburger Cupcakes!
They aren’t really so orangey-yellow, but smoke season has started and it makes the daylight very orangey.
Normally, I really enjoy baking from scratch, but it’s been so hot that the extra work in the kitchen felt oppressive, so these are made from boxes: the buns are yellow cake and the patties are brownies. Here’s how they go together:
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Slice the fully cooled cupcakes in half laterally. Use a round cookie cutter to cut fully cooled brownies into circles.
Sprinkle white sesame seeds on the top bun, pipe ketchup-red frosting on bottom bun.
Sprinkle green-dyed coconut lettuce over the ketchup. I left a couple coconut-free.
Add the cut brownie over that.
Pipe on cheese-yellow frosting. I went with a sort of square-ish shape to hint at a slice of cheese vs a cheese sauce even though I’m not convinced it worked with this particular frosting which wasn’t especially firm. The squares are not filled in - there’s already a lot going on AND this seemed like it would make them more stable. I saw where some people use a square of yellow fondant which looks great, but I don’t know that I have met a single person who likes to eat fondant.
Add a few sliced strawberry tomatoes. I removed the “tomato” from one.
Add the top bun and use a pick of some sort to keep the stack together.
I had just a tiny bit of left over cupcake batter so I made a few mini cupcakes. Luckily, I had enough extra brownie to cut a few mini circles, too! So there are three little sliders!
This photo shows the color a bit more accurately.
I didn’t plan ahead enough to make a fancier sign to go with these which I do like to do, but I did want to let people know what these contain and which ones are different which I marked with a cellophane-toothpick code.
If I ever do this again, I might go with a less-moist yellow cake just to make a slightly more bun-looking top. I might bake the brownies in a larger pan than recommended to make them a little thinner to make these just a little easier to eat.