Cheeseburger Cupcakes

My friend Kathy is one of my biggest supporters. She's always finding very cool and quirky things to make and when she shows me something, I know it wil be a goody. Case in point is these Cheeseburger Cupcakes. As soon as I saw these I got all excited and starting pointing at the computer excitedly trying to get my husband's attention. "Look! Look!" I mimed as my mouth was full of juice. His chuckle assured me that to make these was a no brainer.

I've mentioned the cheeseburger is my favourite burger. When I was young, I was never allowed a Big Mac, only the cheeseburger and whilst I never flipped the pickles onto the window sill as some of my friends did during a rowdy, fun 8th birthday party, I never liked the pickles. Nowadays I make up for my previous pickle shunning by requesting extra pickles in my cheeseburger.

The "cheese, sauces and lettuce" for these are created via icing tubes and I did a shortcut and made 6 cupcakes in total which you can do using the one 12 muffin tray and making 6 chocolate cupcakes and 6 vanilla cupcakes. The chocolate centre is a mud cake centre whilst the bun is a regular vanilla butter cake. It doesn't get much harder than that and there's no buttercream to make after it or god forbid any spun toffee. In fact these were amongst the easiest cupcakes I've made in a long time and the most rewarding.

In the absence of any real icing or filling, these are more what I'd call novelty cupcakes although you could certainly dig a bit of a hole and add some jam, cream or curd in it. If you don't, I'd try and eat these on the day you make them or the day after  as icing often helps to keep a cupcake moist. For an authentic measure which also aids in keeping the cupcake moist, do as you'd do a cheeseburger and wrap it up in some wax paper.

So tell me Dear Reader, which type of cupcake would you like me to make next?

Cheeseburger Cupcakes

Makes 12 cheeseburger cupcakes

You will need 2 muffin trays sprayed thoroughly with non stick oil spray

For the hamburger "bun"

• 125 g butter at room temperature

• 2/3 cup caster sugar

• 2 eggs at room temperature

• 1/3 cup (80ml) milk soured with 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

• 1 cup self raising flour

• 1/4 cups cornflour

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or paste

For the "meat patty"

• 165g butter (doesn’t matter if it’s at room temp or not in this recipe)

• 120g dark eating chocolate broken up into pieces

• 1 1/3 cups light brown sugar

• 2/3 cup water

• 1/4 cup Kahlua

• 2 tablespoons instant coffee powder

• 1 cup plain flour

• 1/4 cup cornflour

• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder

• 1 egg

To decorate

• 2-3 small tubes or 1 large tube of yellow icing

• 1 small tube of red icing

• 1 small tube of green icing

• 1-2 tablespoons sesame seeds

Method for the hamburger "bun"

Step 1 - Preheat oven to 150c fan forced or 170c non fan forced.

Step 2 - Beat the first 3  ingredients (the butter, sugar and eggs) with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy

Step 3 - Add in the remaining cake ingredients. Spoon into the muffin tray (ensure that it is well sprayed with non stick oil spray to avoid it sticking).

Step 4 - Bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool in tin.

Method for the "meat patty"

Step 1 - Preheat oven to 150c fan forced or 170c non fan forced.

Step 2 - Place butter, chocolate, sugar, the water, liquer and coffee in small saucepan over low heat until melted and combined. Cool for 15 minutes.

Step 3 - Using a whisk, add flour, cocoa and then egg (at this stage it will look like liquidey dark chocolate ganache). Spoon into patty tins.

Step 4 - Spoon into the muffin tray (ensure that it is well sprayed with non stick oil spray to avoid it sticking).

Step 5 - Bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool in tin.

To assemble

Step 1 - Once the cupcakes are cool, take the vanilla cupcake and cut in half (cutting slightly higher towards the top). Cut the chocolate cupcake in half and either use a flat tip on your yellow icing tube or cut the end on a diagonal as shown and pipe a thick edge around the outside of the chocolate cupcake piece so that the edges show some yellow icing-this is the cheese.

Step 2 - Place the chocolate cupcake piece on the bottom of the vanilla cupcake. Then, draw squiggles around the edge using the green and red icing as shown. Place the top piece of the vanilla cupcake on top of the "patty" and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Serve in wax paper squares wrapped up like mini cheeseburgers.