Just Say Cheese...burger!

Memorial Day and Father's Day and the 4th of July and BBQ season are nearly upon us (well, unless you live in the NW, then you're still in rainy season), I thought I'd share them in case any of you need a fun, creative dessert idea, or a project to do with your kiddos, or a birthday party idea, or...well, you get the point. :)

Are these not the cutest things you've ever seen? :)

Okay, and here's the truth: they are SUUUUUUUUPER easy to make! :) Here's what you do:

1. Bake some cupcakes out of yellow cake. Personally I think they are cuter if you use the cupcake wrappers and then take them off so the "buns" have the crinkled edges and they don't get too brown.

*Note: If you really want to be authentic, you can buy sesame seeds (I bought them out of one of those bulk tubs at the grocery store), and while the cupcakes are still warm (the seeds stick better), sprinkle them over the tops. If you're having trouble getting the seeds to stick, get a little bit of warm water and use your finger to wipe it over the top of the cupcake before sprinkling the seeds, then they will stick just fine.

2. Bake a pan of brownies.

3. Cut the cooled cupcakes in half.

4. Using a biscuit cutter or a cookie cutter or a knife or whatever will work, cut circles in your brownies about the same size as the bottom of the cupcake.

5. You can buy a tub or two of white/vanilla frosting and dye it with food coloring, or you can buy the cans of ready-to-go icing with the different attachments to decorate. You need red, yellow, and green. And you want vivid colors, so if you dye your own, make sure you use plenty of food coloring or else it looks kind of weird. (In the photos I dyed the red and yellow and I bought the green.)

6. Pipe icing, either using the can, a piping bag, or you can glob it into a ziplock bag and snip of one corner, of one color onto all the bottoms of the cupcakes (I put red on bottom, but it doesn't really matter). It doesn't have to be neat--you can just use squiggles--and you really only need it around the edges. You want it to peek out so you can see it. This will hold the brownie in there and it will also make it look like ketchup (or mustard or lettuce, depending on what color you use) on your burger.

7. Put the brownie circle on next, then pipe the other two colors in the same way around the edges of the top of the brownie. Add the top of the cupcake.

Voila! Cheeseburger cupcakes. Adorable and easy. :)

And if you want to go the extra mile...

It is also super easy (although a little bit time consuming) to make "fries" out of sugar cookies. You can use your favorite sugar cookie recipe (ones that don't rise and lose their shape work best--like the recipe you'd use with cookie cutters, as opposed to the recipe for just round cookies that puff up), or you can buy the sugar cookie mix at the store. Roll it out flat, about 1/4" thick and put it on your cookie sheet (I put mine on top of parchment paper...it made it way easier to deal with). Then take a sharp knife and cut your layer of cookie dough vertically down the middle. Next make horizontal cuts all along the length of the dough, about 1/4" wide. The cookies will rise a little, so it work best if you then peel up every other one so there's a space in between each one giving them room to grow a little (especially if you use the store mix).

Cook them until they're a pretty golden-brown. AS SOON AS YOU TAKE THEM OUT OF THE OVEN, sprinkle sugar over the top (this will make them look like the fries are "salted", and if you do it while they're hot, the sugar will stick). When they come out, if they've grown they will probably look like "steak fries" like you would get at Red Robin, etc. If that is what you want, awesome. While they're still super hot*, take your knife and go over the cuts again, just to make sure they are separated. If you want them to look more like McDonald's fries, cut each "fry" down the middle to make them half as big (that's what I did).

*If you wait until they cool off, they will have hardened and they will break when you cut them, so make sure you cut them as soon as you take them out of the oven.

So there you have it! Super easy, adorable, and lots of fun to make. And you can make baskets like these and put tissue paper in them to make them even more "authentic." (I used red and blue because they were for the 4th of July...and that's what I already had at my house.) :) There's a template for the basket HERE that you can print on cardstock and assemble yourself. There are also templates for Father's day tissue paper and a fry holder, if you are interested in those, too.

Have fun! If you make them, be sure to post photos and let me know! Can't wait to see them! :)

And if you want to see where I got this cute idea, or more detailed step-by-step instructions with photos, click HERE!