A Burger Cake for the Burger King

My father is a fan of Burger King - to say the least.  He has eaten lunch at Burger King every single day for the past 2 or 3 years, I'm not sure.  Needless to say, he absolutely loves it.

And so, since his birthday was coming and I had taken up cake decorating, my stepmom commissioned me to make a cheeseburger cake for his 58th.  I've seen the cheeseburger cake in many forms over the years.  In fact, the first time I ever saw one was at my best friend's birthday party in elementary school.  So I'm very familiar with it.  But, I knew it was going to be a bit of a challenge.  Especially since it would be my first attempt at covering cake with fondant. And not just any fondant - homemade rolled fondant that I would make myself.  And I made that choice for two reasons - because fondant doesn't appear to come in the color I was looking for, at least not a bunch of it.  And, although Wilton makes a lovely rainbow of spray colors, they don't make brown or tan. (And an airbrush machine is $300, I believe, so that was absolutely out.)

Step one was lots and lots of research. Studying photos on Google, finding You Tube tutorials, various cake blog descriptions and advice, etc.  I must say that You Tube tutorials have been a lifesaver so far.  I don't even know why people need to go to school for stuff like this anymore. :P  I'm also a very visual learner and since people mostly suck at writing instructions, it's always best for me to watch somebody do something.

Step two - was just to make it work.

Unfortunately, I was sick for the last two days of last week, which meant I spent most of my time in bed.  But somehow, I managed to drum up enough strength on Friday evening to begin baking.  The party was the following evening.

Because I was making a stacked cake covered in fondant (which means it's heavy), I knew I would have to dense up my cake recipe or find a good scratch one.  I learned through online research that it's very simple to dense up a box mix by changing up the recipe a bit and adding instant pudding to the mixture.  So - I densed up yellow cake mix and baked my "buns."  Another ingenious thing I learned online is that a Pyrex bowl is the perfect baking container for the top bun.  So - I utilized my glass Pyrex for the top bun and an 8 inch round for the bottom.  The results were great!

The "burger," I made out of a densed chocolate cake recipe - an 8 inch round.  I wrapped all of the cake layers in several layers of cling wrap and refrigerated them overnight.

Making fondant is a simple but messy process.  Yet, I really feel that it's worth it, considering the same amount of fondant in a store will cost you four or five times the price.  It's just marshmallows, water, powdered sugar and flavoring. That's it. But - you have to have a good stand mixer with a dough hook.  And - even after the dough hook does its work, the work is not done.  You have to knead it for at least 10 to 15 minutes.  The greatest part about it, though, other than the cost, is that you can color it while it's still in the liquid process. And if you've ever seen those bakers on TV painfully kneading color into large lumps of white fondant, you know it's not something you want to mess with if you don't have to.


I also made the buttercream the day before -finally adding creme bouquet flavoring to the mix, which made the buttercream taste as close to bakery style icing as I've ever made.  I was super pleased with it.

Day two consisted of assembly and decorating.  I had another challenge as well.  I had to split and fill two layers of the cake  - the bottom bun and burger patty. I'd never split cake layers before. And my dad requested German chocolate frosting for the filling-the coconut, caramel pecan concoction.  I went with the canned stuff because I know making that stuff is a huge headache.  The issue there was that the frosting is very, very wet and would add a ton of moisture to the cake - not always a bad thing, but that bottom bun wasn't a very thick layer to begin with, so I needed to proceed with caution.

And then I had a misstep - I decided that I would do a nutella buttercream for the patty frosting.  I figured it would be simple - scoop out of some of my fresh buttercream, blend in a container of nutella and voila.

Only there was no voila.

It was a disaster.  It turned into some sort of weird dough like mixture.  I added chocolate milk and brown food coloring.  And mixed and mixed and mixed.  It was weird. It was chewy.  It was almost like a failed fudge.  However, it would have to do.  There was no way I was making more buttercream.  At this point I had already put FIVE POUNDS of powdered sugar into the elements of this cake. Yes - FIVE!!

So, I continued on doing things I'd never done before.  The cake splitting came out perfectly, but I had watched several videos on how to do it right, so I owe it all to those.  I made fondant lettuce, tomatoes and cheese slices out of Wilton fondant that I bought - the pack that comes with the primary colors.  My sis helped me mix up icing ketchup and mustard.  The undyed frosting served as mayonnaise.  And then, I commenced putting it together.

I was super intimidated when it came to the cake covering step.  And my first attempt was a disaster.  The key, crucial thing is - the rolling surface MUST be completely covered in powdered sugar or cornstarch.  Not a little . . .a LOT.  I learned this the hard way.  Every bit of the fondant stuck to the table the first time around, and I had to scrape it off and start over.  We actually used a sifter and sifted a good layer of sugar onto the table.  I rolled it out into a giant circle and it lifted easily. I draped it on the bottom bun and it was easy to smooth. Then, as I've seen so many times in tutorials and on TV, I used a pizza cutter to cut off the excess.  I have to admit, it looked perfect.  Once I had smoothed off most of the powdered sugar, it was great.  And, the cool thing was a bit of powdered sugar wasn't too bad - because sometimes you'll see flour left on your burger buns.

The nutella buttercream worked out better than I could have hoped.  Because of the consistency, it almost had a fondant texture to it which made it hard to dent.  You could touch it and it wasn't tacky and wouldn't come off, so that was awesome.  Top bun process also went very well.  I stacked the bottom bun and patty, then added my lettuce, cheese and tomatoes - just around the perimeter (since that's the only part you'll see). At this point, I decided to add straws for support -yes just regular old drinking straws.  They worked out well.  Then, I gently put on the top bun.  It looked better than I would have imagined.  The last step was to pipe condiments and the sesame seeds on the bun.  I waited for my "seeds" to dry, then dipped a clean finger into powdered sugar and flattened down the seeds for a better look.

Earlier in the week, we'd acquired some Burger King sandwich wrappers and empty fry boxes.  The night before I'd also made a pound cake that I cut up into "fries."  We placed them in the boxes and used the papers to decorate our cake board.

And -voila, here is the result.  I have to say, I'm kind of stunned.  It was everything I could have hoped for.

Ravishing Rosette Cake

So, I finally took the plunge and did a full-size cake.  Not a tiered cake - yet.  And I haven't attempted a fondant covering.  But I just wanted to get my feet wet a bit with a bigger cake.  I did a three layer carrot cake.  It was a box mix, but I do plan on coming up with some recipes of my own.

At first I just made the one box of cake mix, using two 9-inch round pans.  But - as soon as they were out of the pans, I knew I needed at least one more layer to achieve the look I was going for.  Alas, it was 8:45 p.m. on a Sunday night.  So - I decided to stack those and do a crumb coat.  Between the layers, before putting frosting, I made a simple syrup type mixture of brown sugar, water, honey, butter and cinnamon.  I brushed the tops of the layers with the mixture.  Then I spread frosting for filling and sprinkled finely crushed roasted pecans.

I made a cream cheese buttercream for the frosting, which was a bit tricky.  I initially made the standard buttercream recipe that I use and added one 8 oz tub of whipped cream cheese to it.  It just wasn't cream cheesy enough.  So, I added an additional 8 oz tub of the spreadable cream cheese (not the whipped because they were out.)  Well - it made the frosting waaay too soft.  I started trying to pipe my design and it wouldn't hold up at all.  Started sliding down the side.  So - after another trip to the grocery store for a 2 lb bag of powdered sugar, I was soon back in business.  I added another half bag of sugar to the frosting mixture and it set up quite nicely.

So - here are my results.

I piped giant rosettes all over the cake.  I used a large tip - #2004 (which, by the way, I haven't seen on Wilton's site.  It came in a decorating caddy kit I bought a few weeks ago.)  The tip is pretty big though - a giant closed star.  I'm quite pleased with the results.  I know that it's not perfect, but I think I'm getting there.

Cookie Dough Truffles

My husband loves chocolate chip cookies as well as truffles.  And so, while searching for something to make for him for this past Valentine's day, I stumbled upon a recipe for an incredible offspring of the two.

Cookie Dough and Truffles had a baby, y'all.

That last sentence should give you a clue as to who came up with this artery-clogging, diabetic nightmare of a concoction.  None other than the butter queen herself, Ms. Paula Deen. (Recipe)

Anywho -it's egg free so you can consume it raw.  What does one use as a binder, you might ask?  Well condensed milk  of course!  : O

They were quite delicious, though they should be eaten sparingly unless you want a bellyache (or a diabetic coma).

Honestly, I decided to make something for him for Valentine's Day, because we are on the type of budget that doesn't allow for $150 meals out to celebrate the holiday (and $75 boxes of chocolates).  I chose an acid-free photo box from Hobby Lobby in solid white on sale for $1.00.  I covered it with stickers that I found on sale in the scrapbooking aisle.  Then, filled the box with the two layers of cookie dough truffles.  The papers are actually mini cupcake papers that are decorated for valentine's day.  And I found the sprinkles in the Dollar Spot at Target (who doesn't love the Dollar Spot?!).

He was quite impressed and looooved these truffles.

Practice Makes Perfect

I had some leftover icing so decided I would play the other day when I found myself at home for the day with a sick baby (double ear infection). : (

While he snoozed, I baked a batch of cupcakes (Pillsbury funfetti cake mix on SALE - booyah!) and used my leftover icing from the Tree frog extravangza a while ago to play and use a tip I hadn't tried before.  The tip is Wilton #104, which is a petal tip, and I used it to make flowers and ruffles.

They came out ok.  I have a long way to go, but they're not bad.

These Had Me Hoppin'

My second fondant challenge was a big one. My son's t-ball team The Treefrogs was having an end of the season party and I used it as a great excuse to work with fondant some more. I decided I wanted to make fondant tree frogs.  I don't even know why I decided to go with something so complex, but I rationalized that it really wasn't that bad - just a sum of parts.

ELEVEN parts, to be exact.

I originally thought I would make a frog for each of my 48 cupcakes, but that was a plague-like feat I simply wasn't going to be able to accomplish.  Considering that first tree frog took me about 30 minutes to complete.  And that I have a baby and a young son to tend to, etc etc  It just wasn't possible.  We ended up with 10 frogs total.  And I came up with some other ideas for the additional cupcakes, which turned out pretty great as well.

This first cupcake I called my "all-star cupcake."  The stars are 4th of July marshmallows I picked up at the grocery store on clearance.  I speared them with toothpicks, dipped them in tinted candy melts, sprinkled them with sparkling sugar and voila - sparkly stars.  Used a grass tip for the icing, which was a bit tricky to get used to.

My baseball cupcake.  These were pretty tough to get right. My first attempt looked like my baby son had done them.

And my complicated little tree frog.  Eleven parts to assemble, but well worth the time and effort.  For the pupils of his eyes, I dipped the end of a cotton swab into black food coloring (since I haven't yet purchased any edible markers.)

To make the frogs appear slimy, I sprayed a bit of butter flavored non-stick spray onto a plate and used a small paintbrush to paint each one.  I didn't want to spray them whole for fear that their pupils would run.  

Here they are on my cupcake tree at the party.

Top frog!

30th Birthday Fiesta Cupcakes

I started out with cupcakes, because I figured that cupcakes would be much easier.

HA!

Cupcakes have their pros, but the cons concerning decorating is that each cupcake needs a design.  And each design takes time to make.  But, until I conquer my fear of stacking the big cakes, I remain in my cupcake comfort zone, however time-consuming it may be.

The following cupcakes are my first work with fondant.  I made these for my sister's 30th birthday Fiesta Celebration.

But first, this is my very first fondant creation.

And the cupcakes - featuring peppers, sombreros, maracas and cacti.

The sombreros were actually made with gummi rings, but I did add fondant ties.

Gingerly: What's in a Name?

The definition of gingerly according to Mr. Webster is: very cautious or careful.  Synonyms include considerate, which is how I like to think of myself when I approach a baking project.  Careful.  Considerate.  Trying to do this to the best of my abilities.

It should also be noted that my name is Ginger Leigh.  Yes, I'm literally an adverb, but a good one, I think. Sometimes gingerly is associated with timidity, but that's not how I like to think of it.  I once read it meant doing something with great care and delicacy. 

I'm just starting out and am self-taught, but have been around baking for as long as I can remember. My mother was also a self-taught decorator who supplied much of our immediate and extended family with magnificent cake creations throughout the years.  I also briefly worked at a local bakery during my senior year of college where I was soon designated one of the chief cake greeting writers because I really had a knack for it.  During slow periods, I would head into the back, just behind the glass, to play with the bags of icing, practice making roses and my buttercream penmanship.

I finally tackled fondant awhile back and I must say I don't know why I avoided working with it for so long or felt so intimidated.  Working with it felt completely natural and I immensely enjoyed creating things out of it.  

So, this site is just to showcase some things that I've done and that I plan on doing.  I'm learning, but so far, I've been pretty happy with the results.