Hamburger Cupcakes and Sugar Cookie Fries

A few days before our Labor Day cookout, I decided to search Pinterest for a fun dessert. I found this pin that linked to this blog with a super fun cupcake idea. The basic idea was to make cupcakes, cut them in half, put a brownie as a burger and then jazz it up with some colored "ketchup" and "mustard" icing. It sounded easy enough and I was so excited to make a super cute dessert.

The first thing I did was make a batch of cupcakes with liners. I thought I'd be sneaky and do the "add a diet soda to cake mix" trick that's floating around pinterest too. I mean, I was putting a brownie in the middle of the cupcake... I had to 'skinny' them up somehow. I used a yellow cake mix and diet ginger ale. I always have a problem with my cupcakes (or muffins) sticking to the paper liners... and that caused a bit of a problem. I put a few in the fridge over night to see if that would help and left a few out. The ones I left out fared the best. Don't put them in the fridge. It didn't work and I had to toss out a few cupcakes.

So, now I had a couple "skinny" cupcakes to work with. (and the diet soda trick - Super Pintastic except for the sticking. It was so easy and you really couldn't taste a difference. I think it makes them more moist).

 

 

The next day I baked my brownies. You can do the diet coke trick here too, but I didn't since I've never tried it with brownies before and didn't know how it would change them. I didn't have a round cookie cutter, and found out that an Avent bottle cap made the perfect sized 'burgers.' Mom ingenuity at its best!



 

 

Here's where it got messy. I wanted to get a bunch of 'burgers' so I started punching holes right at the edge. Well, you know the nice, crunchy edge brownies get? It's not very good for cutting with a plastic bottle cap. Just start more in from the edge and you'll be fine. I was afraid I wouldn't have enough, but I did. As you can see, the most you could get would be about 14 burgers anyway, so my cupcake disaster didn't make a difference anyway. 

 

 

Now you'll have a bunch of extra brownie pieces left over. I'm sure you'll figure out something you can do with them... I'll wait while you stuff your face with them... Mmm.

 

 

I bought a box of sugar cookie mix and followed the direction on the blog to make roll out cookies. I didn't really have a problem with the fries at all. Mine expanded like she said they would. I just cut them in half again when they came out of the oven with a pizza cutter. Warning: The sugar cookie fries are addicting. You will eat a ton of them. Some will break or won't be perfect and you will have to dispose of them accordingly. Don't worry. I won't tell.

 

I decided to skip the "lettuce" icing and just stick with the "ketchup" and "mustard." It was really hard to find get a shade of red that didn't look pink, but it worked and everyone drooled over my adorable little burger cupcakes and fries. It fooled almost everyone.

"Burger and Fries" cupcakes and cookies

The verdict: These turned out super adorable and I got a lot of attention for making them (and who doesn't LOVE that!) so overall I would say they were Pintastic. The only problem was they took forever to make. I really didn't put it together that I would have to bake cupcakes, brownies, and cookies for two days. It was a lot of baking and then assembling. These would be great to take to party, but if you're HOSTING the party (like me), save some time and don't make these. You have more important things to worry about... you know, like the actual hamburgers.

 

 

-AM