Make a Hamburger Cake

Turning a plain old cake into a hamburger is a great way to surprise a friend or family member with a really cool treat! The trick to making a hamburger cake is making three separate cakes, and using icing and other decorations to create the bun, the patty, and the condiments. For any barbecue lovers or hamburger fanatics in your life, a hamburger cake is a fun way to celebrate a birthday or other life milestone.

Ingredients

Yellow Cake

• 2 cups (454 g) unsalted butter, softened
• 4 cups (900 g) granulated sugar
• 8 large eggs
• 4 large egg yolks
• 2 teaspoons (12 g) salt
• 2 tablespoons (24 g) baking powder
• 6 cups (750 g) all-purpose flour
• 4 cups (948 ml) buttermilk
• 5 teaspoons (25 ml) vanilla extract

Meringue Buttercream

• 12 egg whites
• 4 cups (900 g) white sugar
• 6 cups (1.4 kg) unsalted butter, room temperature, cubed
• 2 tablespoons (30 ml) vanilla extract
• Green food coloring
• Red food coloring
• Yellow food coloring
• Blue food coloring

Decorations

• ¼ cup (5 g) puffed rice cereal

Steps

Baking the Cakes

1. Gather your supplies and ingredients. To make a hamburger cake, you will need a couple different baking pan types, multiple frosting colors to make the condiments, and some other supplies. Preheat your oven to 350° F (177° C), and gather your supplies:
   • One medium, one large, and three small mixing bowls
   • Sifter
   • Whisk
   • Electric beaters or stand mixer
   • Two eight-inch cake pans, greased
   • One two-quart (1.9 L) oven-save glass bowl, greased
   • Three wire cooling racks
   • Small saucepan
   • Candy thermometer
   • Cake plate or serving platter
   • Piping bag
   • Round piping tip
   • Petal piping tip
   • Frosting knife
2. Separate the eggs. Take one egg and crack it against a flat surface to get an even break. Open the egg over a bowl and hold one half in each hand. Let the yolk fall into one of the halves, and then transfer the yolk back and forth between the halves until all the white has fallen into the bowl below and you're left with just the yolk in the shell.
   • Repeat with all four eggs.
   • To prevent egg shells from getting into your baking, separate the eggs into a separate bowl before adding them to your baking.
   • Reserve the egg whites for later use. You can freeze the whites in a sealable freezer bag until you have a recipe that requires them.
3. Cream the butter, sugar, and eggs. Combine the butter and sugar in a large bowl and cream them together with a whisk or electric beaters. After about three minutes, beat in the eggs, one at a time. When they are fully incorporated, beat in the egg yolks one at a time.
   • Beating in the ingredients in stages will help ensure a light and fluffy cake.
4. Combine the dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, sift together the salt, baking powder, and flour. Sifting will remove lumps and aerate the dry ingredients, making the cake light rather than dense.
   • If you don’t have a sifter, place all the ingredients into the bowl and whisk them together.
5. Add all ingredients to the creamed mixture. Pour half the dry ingredients into the creamed butter, sugar, and egg mixture. Beat or whisk until everything is combined. Add half the buttermilk and mix to combine. Repeat until you’ve added all the dry ingredients and buttermilk.
   • Finally, add the vanilla to the batter and beat until everything is fully incorporated.
6. Bake the cakes. Divide the batter between the two cake pans and the bowl. Bake the cakes for about 25 minutes. The cake in the bowl may need up to 30 minutes. The cakes are done when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
   • If you only have one eight-inch cake pan, bake the two cakes in separate batches.
7. Cool the cakes. Remove the cakes from the oven and leave them to cool for 10 minutes. Then, turn them out onto wire cooling racks to cool completely, about one to two hours.
   • You can't assemble the hamburger until the cakes have fully cooled, or the icing and decorations will melt off.
   • While you're waiting for the cakes to cool, prepare the frosting.

Making the Meringue Buttercream

1. Heat the eggs and sugar. Fill the bottom of a saucepan with about an inch (2.5 cm) of water. Place a large glass or metal bowl on top, and combine the egg whites and sugar in the bowl. Heat the mixture over medium heat, until it reaches 140 F (60 C).
   • Remove the saucepan from the heat. Either transfer the mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer, or leave it in the mixing bowl and place it on a heat-proof surface.
2. Beat the mixture. With the whisk attachment on the stand mixer or electric beaters, beat the egg and sugar mixture on high speed for about 10 minutes, until the eggs increase in volume and form stiff peaks.
   • Beating the eggs in this way creates the meringue portion of the buttercream icing.
3. Add the butter and vanilla. Reduce the speed of the mixer to medium–high. Add the butter one cube at a time, and continue mixing until all the butter has been incorporated. Add the vanilla and beat for another minute.
   • The mixture may appear to break down when you first start adding the butter. Continue beating in the butter, and the ingredients will come back together to form a smooth and glossy frosting.
4. Divide and color the frosting for the condiments. Portion out half the frosting into a new bowl and set that aside. With the original bowl of frosting, divide it evenly among three separate bowls.
   • To create the red food frosting for the ketchup, add 10 to 20 drops of red food coloring to one bowl. Whisk to combine, and add more food coloring if necessary until the desired intensity of red is achieved.
   • Repeat with the green food coloring and another bowl of frosting. This will be used to create the lettuce.
   • Repeat again with the third bowl of frosting, but color it yellow for the mustard.
5. Color the frosting for the bun and patty. Return to the uncolored portion of frosting. Divide it evenly between two bowls. One will be colored brown for the patty, and the other will be a tan color for the bun.
   • For the brown frosting, add six drops of red, six drops of yellow, and four drops of blue to one bowl of frosting. Whisk to combine. If necessary, add the same quantity of coloring again to create a more intense brown color.
   • To create the tan for the bun, add six drops of red, eight drops of yellow, and two drops of blue to the second bowl. Repeat if necessary to achieve a more intense color.

Assembling and Decorating

1. Make the bottom of the hamburger. Place one of the eight-inch cakes onto a clean cake plate or serving platter. Using a frosting or butter knife, apply a layer of tan frosting to the sides of the cake for the bun.
   • To create the lettuce under the patty, spread a layer of green frosting on the top of the cake.
   • Transfer the remaining green frosting to the pastry bag, and fit the bag with the petal tip. Use the piping bag to pipe a billowing layer of frosting at the top edge of the cake, so that it will spill out like lettuce underneath the patty.
2. Create the patty. Place the second eight-inch cake on a regular plate or flat surface. Use the frosting knife to cover the top and sides of the cake with a generous layer of brown frosting to make the patty.
   • To give the cake a meaty texture, gently press a clean paper towel into the frosting on the side of the cake and pull it away to dimple the frosting. Repeat all around the entire cake.
   • When the patty has been frosted, use a spatula to pick up the cake and carefully set it down on top of the first cake (the bottom of the bun with lettuce).
3. Add the ketchup and mustard. Transfer the red frosting to a clean pastry bag and fit it with the round piping tip. Start at the center of the cake and pipe a spiral of red frosting to the outside of the cake. On the sides, drizzle some frosting over the sides of the patty to replicate dripping ketchup.
   • Repeat with the yellow frosting to create the mustard. Start in the center with the yellow frosting and create a spiral that goes in the opposite direction as the ketchup. When you make the additional drips on the side of the cake for the mustard, place them beside the ketchup drippings.
4. Create the top of the bun. Take the cake that was baked in the bowl and position it so it’s sitting on the flat end and the semicircle is facing upward. Frost the entire semicircle with tan icing to create the top of the bun.
   • Use a spatula to pick up the top of the bun and place it on top of the patty.
5. Add the final touch before serving. Right before you're ready to serve the cake, sprinkle the top with the puffed rice cereal to create the sesame seeds on top of the bun.
   • Adding the cereal last will keep it crunchy and prevent it from going soggy in the frosting.

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