Hamburger Cake

I made this Hamburger Cake for our family get together over Memorial Day weekend. It is a neat cake to make and after making it many times I have a few tricks to make it come together easier.

To start make a chocolate cake. I used this recipe but you can use a cake mix and bake it into 3 eight inch round cake pans. I usually will spray and flour the pans to make sure they don’t stick.

Frostings

You will also need chocolate and vanilla frosting. I made this chocolate frosting recipe and this buttercream frosting recipe. You can purchase one container of regular frosting and one chocolate frosting if you don’t feel like making the frosting yourself.

To color the white frosting so it is more of a bun color I used 5 drops red food coloring, 4 drops of yellow food coloring and 1 drop of green. Mix this in well. It makes a nice beige color that should work well.

If you don’t have a cake platter you can cut out a piece of cardboard in a circle and then cover it with foil like so.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I make fondant frosting for the cheese, lettuce and tomatoes.

Ingredients for Fondant

2 cups powdered sugar
3 Tablespoons margarine or butter
3 T corn syrup

Mix the ingredients up with a spoon until it comes together in a dough and knead it a few times on a surface dusted with powdered sugar or on wax paper.

Then divide the fondant into three portions color one with yellow, one with red and one with green. To color the dough I usually will knead the food color into the dough on a piece of waxed paper.

Store the fondant in the refrigerator until you need it.

 

Assembling the Cake

Once the cake is made and fully cooled pick the best rounded cake for the top bun of the cake and set it aside.

Place the cake you picked for the bottom layer on a cake platter or the foil plate you made. Then frost it with some of the beige buttercream frosting. Don’t worry about how the top looks just make sure the sides are nice as that is all that will be showing of this layer.

Now you need to take your hamburger patty layer and frost it with chocolate frosting and then sprinkle with chocolate sprinkles. I do this on a piece of waxed paper or freezer paper.

Then with a spatula I carefully place it on top of the other layer. The cake should look like this.

The Burger Toppings

First you want to make the cheese fondant. Roll out the yellow fondant onto a surface floured with powdered sugar or onto wax paper. I used freezer paper. Then cut it into a large square. I use a plastic sandwich container to cut the square.

Then cut the “cheese square” diagonally. You will need to make four  of these triangles total.

Then drape the cheese fondant over the cake on the edges so it looks like melting cheese. Like so

Now it is time to make the lettuce for the cake. Roll out the green fondant. I find it is easier to roll it out onto a surface covered with powdered sugar or on wax paper or freezer paper. Then cut into strips and squish them together a little to ripple them. Then place the ribbons on the edge of the cake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next step is to make the tomatoes. Roll out the red fondant and cut out circles. I use a small glass to cut out the circles. Then cut the circles in half.

Place them around the edges on top of the lettuce. So it looks like this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next frost the top layer of the cake with the beige buttercream frosting. You want this layer to look really nice on the sides and the top as it shows the most. I place the cake on the wax paper and frost it. Then with a spatula carefully place it on top of the other layers.

I will sprinkle a few chocolate sprinkles on top to look like sesame seeds. Now the cake it done.

This cake has quite a few steps but it makes a nice and unique looking cake. It also taste much better than the hamburger cakes you can buy at the store. I hope if you make one you will let me know how it goes for you.