Mini Hamburger Cupcakes

This was Gabe's request this year, which, as is his tradition, was negotiated down from something that seemed beyond my skills. I can't remember what it was. But something akin to the brains from a couple of years ago. Hamburgers were a happy compromise.

 This time I'm doing something I've really never done and sharing a little about the process. I was inspired by this video by Cupcake Jemma, and used the recipes from this post. Both the brownies, and especially, the vanilla cupcakes were delicious. It came out like a pound cake. I'm definitely using that again. Below are all the burger components lined up and ready to assemble.

 First, there were the cupcake "buns", then the brownie patties.

 Next came the tomatoes, which were gumdrop-like fruit slices rolled out and sprinkled with more sugar.

 The cheese was an orange Starburst, rolled out. These were surprisingly hard and really hurt my wrists until I discovered if I microwaved each one for 5 seconds it got easier. Through trial and error, I learned 10 seconds was too long and 2 seconds not enough. 5 was perfect.

The lettuce was shredded, sweetened coconut, dyed green.

 I held it all together with red, yellow, and white buttercream "ketchup, mustard, and mayonnaise."

The animals boys tore into them before we got to blow out candles or sing Happy Birthday, which I guess I should take as the  

best compliment a gang of 11 year olds can give. But Mama has to have her moment, so I made him start over, with two ikea scented candles representing the ones and tens because, turns out, we have no birthday candles. 

Happy Birthday, 11 year old!