not so cheesy cheeseburgers
On Saturday night my friend had a 90′s themed party for her birthday (where the 90′s really that long ago?!). I love costume parties & so it’s no surprise that I had HEAPS of fun planning my outfits. I was in high school for most of the 90s so the opportunities to relive past embarrassments were endless, but in the end I went with a short floral skirt, a midriff top & white docs in my best effort to channel 90′s indie rock. On the other hand, Greg is not such a huge fan of costume parties. His idea of a 90s themed costume was wearing a hoodie with the Mario characters on it, (I should add that he adores this hoodie & wears it all the time). He did however buy some wonderfully themed drinks, passionfruit UDLs & lemon Ruskis.
To celebrate my friend’s birthday I thought it would be fun to make these cheese burger cupcakes from Bakerella. They have nothing to do with the 90s but I’d been dying for an excuse to make them & this seemed to be a good one.
The instructions on Bakerella use packet mixes for all the components. I’m not really keen on packet mixes, they taste alright, but when it comes cakes, I’d much prefer to cook things from scratch. They taste SO much better.
For the ‘buns’, I used the vanilla cupcake recipe from ‘The Crabapple Bakery Cupcake Cookbook’, you can find the recipe here. If you like your cupcakes though I genuinely recommend you buy the book (you can purchase it online here). It has the best cupcake recipes I’ve ever used. The instructions are VERY detailed too. For some reason the tops on the cupcakes weren’t as round as normal this time. I was using a silicon mould & I don’t think it’s quite the same as a metal tin.
For the ‘patties’ I used my favourite brownie recipe. This is one that my mum had for years, from an old newspaper clipping. I have no idea which paper it’s from, but I would hazard a guess that it’s from The Age as that’s what my parents have always subscribed to.
250g dark chocolate (using milk chocolate will make the brownies sickly sweet & the sugar will just overpower the chocolate)
170g butter
4 large eggs
2 cups of sugar
1 cup of plain flour
2tsp vanilla extract
Put chocolate & butter in the top of a double boiler over barely simmering water. Stir until the chocolate & butter have melted, remove from heat. Combine eggs & sugar in a large bowl & beat for several minutes or until mixture has thickened & turned pale & fluffy. Add the flour & vanilla & stir until combined. Add the chocolate & butter mixture. Pour into a ceramic tray (like a casserole dish or similar – I find that cooking brownies in a ceramic dish allows you to get a good chewy edge without it being too hard, I’ve found metal trays tend to create chewy edges that are slightly burnt). Bake for 30-45 mins at 175C. The time you leave it in the oven is entirely dependent on what texture you like your brownies. If you want them really soft pull them out after 30mins if you like them chewy, leave them in longer.
Last but not least, for the cheese, tomato sauce & lettuce I used a butter cream frosting (from the Crabapple Cupcake Cookbook), you can find the recipe here.
