Cookie's Hamburger Birthday Cake

This year for Cookie's birthday, she decided to break her tradition of a white-white cake and go for something with a little more schtick. She asked for a cake that looked like a hamburger. As I did the first year she asked for a white-white cake, I inwardly rolled my eyes and then ran a google search to find a suitable prototype. Neither of us wanted to use fondant to decorate, so we searched for other alternatives. We kicked around the idea of making sliders out of cupcakes, but ultimately I decided to make a classic burger shape, using a chocolate layer for the beef and two white cakes for the buns. Here's my inspiration photo:

I'm gonna skip the frosting sesame seeds. And, mine will look a lot more amateurish. But, thanks to The Cake Bible, it should taste ok. Even if I have to use Cookie's Crusty Frosting.

April 18, 2010
Name of Cake: Really?
Occasion: Cookie's 30th Birthday
Constituents: one 8 inch chocolate butter cake sandwiched between two 8 in white cakes, filled with Cookie's Crusty Frosting

This cake is pretty much left unfrosted, so I was worried it would dry out if I baked and assembled it a day ahead. This left me Sunday morning to bust it all out, and since I was in a hurry I didn't run out to the store to buy more cake flour. I figured, if the Heavenly Cakes can be made with either cake flour or bleached all purpose, then the Cake Bible cakes could be made with UBAP too! This sounded great, but in the end all three cakes did sink a bit in the middle, and the white cakes seemed a bit gummy to me. Sorry Cookie. :( Lesson learned.

I was hoping that one of the white cakes would dome enough to look like the top of a bun, but as mentioned, they both sunk instead. So the hamburger "bun" was flat, and I think most everybody at Cookie's party commented to me that if only the top cake was domed it would look more like a burger. I know, people. I know.

Cookie's Crusty Frosting came together without a hitch, and I reserved a couple of tablespoons to turn into ketchup and maybe about 1/4 cup at most to turn into lettuce. It was hard to get the ketchup red enough, I used a little brown as well as red food gel to darken things up. The lettuce green was a little pastel, but the point came across okay. I realised that the person who made the cake in the inspiration photo had a bigger leaf tip than I do so their lettuce looks a little more realistic, but again, the point came across well enough.

Since there were three layers of cake I decided to bake them up as 8 inch layers, and interestingly enough I was able to fit the all the batter for a 9 inch cake into my two 8 inch pans--I guess having 2 inch high cake pans really does make a difference? I've always baked the Cake Bible cakes in 2 inch high pans without a problem so I was surprised all the batter fit fine in the smaller pans. Huh.

Cookie's Hamburger Cake was quickly overshadowed by the Whoopie Pies I brought over the next night. Perhaps next year she'll ask for a giant Whoop?