Hamburger Cake for Susan

I set out to do this post with my friend Susan in mind. Her 21st birthday was just a few days ago, and I wanted to make something special for her.

I was playing around the internet a few nights ago (when I was suppose to be studying for a Biomaterials midterm), when I came upon a website with fun cakes. I was clicking around, seeing all sorts of cool cakes that I really didn't have the experience to make, when I saw some hamburger ones. And bam! a great idea popped into my head.

It was to be my friend Susan's birthday two days later, and some friends were taking her to Olive Garden and Harry Potter as a birthday present. Since I love to bake, I realized that I should make her a cake, because well, she loves cake and desserts (who doesn't??).

Now, the reason for the hamburger cake was twofold. First, it was made in separate layers, so it looked like I wouldn't have to do any carving or anything like that, which is good since I am not very artistic. And second, because Susan is on a month-long vegetarian bit, where we bet her $1 (yes, only one dollar) that she couldn't be a vegetarian for a month. High stakes, indeed. But if she wins, I am taking her to KFC for a Double-Down (you know, one of those sandwiches that is two pieces of chicken with cheese and bacon between them). So it's on!

I was so excited about this cake that I could barely sleep before my midterm, and that's all I thought about all day.

Supplies & trusty Kitchen Aid

Here's how I tackled the cake:
1 box yellow cake (I still haven't started making cakes from scratch...the one thing I still make from a box)
1 box fudge brownies
2 tubs white icing (or butter cream, which is delicious and adds a slight oomph to the cake)
1 tub chocolate icing
15 chocolate oreos, crushed into pieces
10 graham crackers
20 graham cracker sticks
1 cup white chocolate chips
Yellow food dye, red food dye
Black sprinkles

To begin with, I made the yellow cake. I baked it in two 9-in rounds according to the directions on the box. I put more than half in the pan that would be the "top bun", so that it would be more like a hamburger bun.  Now, Susan doesn't like too much frosting, so I planned from the beginning not to frost the top. Therefore, I put on black sprinkles before I baked them on the top bun, but if you were going to frost later then you could just leave it for after frosting.

After the cakes cooled I placed them  in the fridge overnight (you only need a few hours) so they would be easier to frost.

Next, I made the hamburger layer. I used brownies, because Susan likes those more than chocolate cake, and it gave it a nice texture difference. Again, I baked according to the box directions in a 8" round. I put about 3/4 of the mix in the round, and the rest in another pan for my own consumption. If you're not selfish, you could put all of the mix in....

While the brownies were in the oven, I went on to making the "french fries". I got graham cracker sticks and white chocolate chips. I melted the chocolate chips over the stove, and had some trouble with this. As the chips were melting, the mixture was a bit thick, so I decided to add in water to thin it out a little -- BIG MISTAKE. The mixture got all goopy and started to fall apart. I threw in about a tsp of vanilla, and that seem to help it a little bit. To make the graham crackers look like french fries, I added a few drops of yellow food coloring to make a soft yellow. I dipped the graham crackers in the chocolate mixture and then placed on wax paper on a cookie sheet. I put the cookies in the fridge over night as well.

The next morning, I pulled the bottom bun cake out of the fridge, and began to shape it slightly. I cut the top off the cake off just to even it out. However, due to my clumsy nature it wasn't that flat, but icing soon fixed that. See that pile of leftovers to the right? Yeah, ate that. It was delicious.

Next, I "dirty iced" the bottom layer, and stuck it back in the fridge.

Fast forward a few hours, and I pulled the bottom bun out of the fridge. I iced the layer with white frosting dyed red (well, more pink. I need to find a good food dye) to make it look like ketchup. From there, I took the 8" brownie out of the tin and carefully placed it on the bottom bun. It's important to be careful with this step because the brownie is more dense than the bottom cake so if you just plop it on there there is a good chance something will just fall through.

To make the brownie look like ground meat, I took the whole tub of chocolate frosting and placed it into a tupperware bowl. I then crushed up some chocolate oreos (just with my hands, it doesn't need to be that well done). I then mixed it up, also smashing the oreos more with my frosting knife. From experience, there is no need to use the whole tub of frosting; it probably would have been enough to just use about 1/2 tub of frosting and 9-10 cookies.

I patted the frosting-cookie mixture onto the cake. There's no real need to "frost" since it is a thick and chunky mixture. Also, if you just pat it on there then it will look uneven and hopefully more like a meat patty (but infinitely more delicious....). Just pat the frosting mixture onto the top and sides of the brownie layer.

Finally! We are almost at the top layer. Next, I dyed a little bit of frosting (about 3/4 cup of white frosting) orange by putting in about 8 drops yellow food coloring and 2-3 drops red food coloring. The purpose of this was to make cheese! I frosted 5 graham cracker halves with the orange frosting and placed near the outside of the "burger". When I placed the top on, you could only see two of the five, so you should place the graham halves closer to the outside. Also, by the time we ate this it had been sitting out for a day so the graham halves were nicely soft and not crunchy like usual.

Now! The final cake! I took the top layer out of its pan (which I should have done earlier in the day, I just completely forgot). Now, thank goodness my friend Jessica was there, because she helped pull the pan off the cake, and when she did part of the side pulled off, and she had quick hands and caught it before it hit the floor. You can't see it in the photo, but in the back there's about a 4 inch long and 1 inch wide piece that is being held to the rest of the cake with frosting and toothpicks. But what you can see is my handprint, which means that I didn't leave the cake in the oven long enough.

All I did was place the top on, and voila! We have a cake! I added the french fries and what was left over of my red frosting and we have the whole cake:

 

I was very excited about it: 

Susan loved her cake (especially the fries -- they were a huge hit), and it was delicious when we finally ate it the next day. Not loads of frosting; just enough to make the rest of us eating it happy and not too much to deter Susan from eating it. 

Enjoy!