Cheeseburger Cupcakes

Ta-daaaaa!

I am a big fan of the TV show Bob’s Burgers. But, I prefer to bake. So this is my homage to Bob, who always names his burgers with a (sometimes cheesy) literary/pop culture reference.  

I have been wracking my brains trying to think of something clever to name these brownies as Bob would, and I can’t come up with ANYTHING. I am not creative. I have failed. Answers on a postcard.

I have another confession to make. I am kind of terrible at making things look pretty. I promise you, my food *tastes* great, but I can’t always get the cake to rise evenly, or ice things beautifully. My ganache always slips a bit, and my cupcakes always rise a bit too high in the centre. BUT! I wanted to give these a go. And I’m glad that I did, because I think they turned out pretty cool.

I already have great recipes for muffins and great recipes for brownies, so I have recycled those, if it aint broke don’t fix it.

Makes 12

One batch of jammy muffin mixture – no jam added:

• 1 egg
• 85ml vegetable oil
• 125ml milk
• 1 tsp vanilla sugar
• 200g plain flour
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 100g caster sugar
• 35g butter, melted
• Sprinkling of sugar OR sprinkling of sesame seeds

One half batch of cocoa-nut brownie mixture:

• 65g creamed coconut
• 65g butter
• 30g cocoa
• 30g chocolate
• 125g caster sugar
• 50g muscovado sugar
• 2 eggs
• 50g plain flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• 40g desiccated coconut

To assemble:

• 400g icing sugar
• 100g butter
• Food colouring – red ("ketchup"), green ("lettuce"), yellow ("cheese")

Method for the muffins

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees, and grease a muffin pan.

Whisk together the egg, oil, milk and the vanilla sugar, and in a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and caster sugar.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and briefly mix until all combined. Don’t worry if there are a few lumps! Divide the mixture evenly into the prepared muffin tin, and place in the oven to bake for 25 minutes.

Remove from the oven, and place on a cooling rack. While still warm, brush over the melted butter and then either sprinkle over the sugar or sesame seeds.

Allow to cool while you make the brownies.

Method for the cocoa-nut brownies

Add the creamed coconut, butter, cocoa powder and the sugars to a large saucepan and melt carefully over a medium-low heat, stirring regularly. When all melted and combined, take off the heat.

Stir in the eggs one by one, the stir through the flour, baking powder and salt until all combined. Finally, stir through the desiccated coconut.

Pour into a prepared baking tin – I used a baking tray that was longer and allowed for thinner brownies than the usual.

Bake for 30 minutes.  Allow to cool in the tin.

Method for Assembly

Ok, when the muffins and brownies are all cooled, you can make a start on the icing and decoration.

Mix the butter and icing sugar in a large bowl until you have a smooth, pipeable buttercream. Add a tsp or two of milk if required.

Divide the icing into 3 separate bowls, and place 1 tsp of red colouring in one bowl, yellow in the second bowl, and green in the third bowl.

Mix each together, and add more colouring as needed. Divide into three piping bags with plain round (or no) nozzles.

Now, prepare the muffins: remove from the tin and slice in half horizontally like a burger bun.

For the brownies, cut them out into circles just smaller than the cupcakes themselves. I used the second smallest cutter in my set.

If the brownies look too thick, then slice in half horizontally to get to the correct width.

Now, cheeseburger cupcakes: assemble!

Put a small dollop of icing on the centre of the bottom part of the (bun). Place the brownie on top.

Pipe the icing in layers over the top of the brownie.

Stick the top “bun” on top of the iced brownie. Continue with the rest until all are made!

Serve to impressed friends and family.

Order up!