Hamburger Cake

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This cute Hamburger Cake looks like the giant sweet version of the classic, with two cake flavors and buttercream “condiments”. I hope you enjoy this tutorial for this realistic Hamburger Cake.

Hamburger Cake

 

Do you follow Lyndsay from Coco Cake Land?! She’s one my favorites on the innanet. She’s so funny and sweet and strong and rad. Her new book Coco Cake Land: Cute and Pretty Cakes to Bake and Decorate is out and it is hoooooot!

It’s full of pretty and cute cakes that you can bake and decorate. There are step-by-step photos and things like cactus cakes, rainbow cakes, pineapple cakes with faces and so much more. I like to think that it would make a really cute gift…but we’re not in holiday season just yet (thanks the heavens!) because I’m not about that right now—too stressful.

What is more summer than a hamburger cake? It is super cute and surprisingly easy to put together. No crazy piping skills needed. I will say that it’s component heavy and a bit laborious so I wouldn’t judge you if you went the cake mix route for this one since it’s such a project.

How Do You Make a Hamburger Cake?

  1. Bake the Cakes. We’ve got a vanilla cake (da buns!) and a chocolate cake (da burger!) to make.
  2. Make the vanilla cake: Cream together the butter and sugar, add the eggs, then alternately add the milk and dry ingredients. Place in prepared pans and bake!
  3. Make the chocolate cake: Mix together the dry ingredients, then the wet ingredients. Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry then add to the prepared pan and bake!
  4. Make the Buttercream: Cream together the butter and powdered sugar is nice and fluffy then add the milk and separate into bowls. Add the right food colors to the frostings!

 

 

Tips and Tricks:

  • Break up the work. I made the cake one day and wrapped it up then made the buttercream and assembled the second day. It’s much easier this way!
  • Make sure you have the right piping tips. The leaf tip is the least common of the bunch but it’s a cool tip that I use almost every time I pipe flowers to fill in space. I like to buy my piping tips and bags at michaels and use my coupon!
  • Real sesame seeds are okay too. Pearl sugar can be a little tricky to find, just use real toasted sesame seeds! They absolutely work in sweet situations and would maybe further the illusion.

 

Hamburger Cake

How to Decorate a Hamburger Cake:

  1. Color all the buttercream. Except for one! The “mayo” is white so we don’t need to worry about that. What we do need is red “ketchup”, yellow “mustard” and green “lettuce”
  2. Figure out what piping tips you need. The key to making sure everything looks different is to use the right piping tips. We need a large tip, a medium tip, and a leaf tip for this.
  3. Pipe and assemble! Lay a layer of the vanilla cake down on a cake stand then pipe on some “mayo” and top with the chocolate burger layer. Add some more “mayo” then use a leaf tip to pipe on “lettuce” and the other two tips to pipe on the “mustard and ketchup”. Top with the second vanilla layer and use some pearl sugar for “sesame seeds”!

Hamburger Cake

 

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Hamburger Cake Recipe

Prep: 30 minutes
Cook: 1 hour 10 minutes
Total: 1 hour 40 minutes
Servings: 12
This cute hamburger cake looks like the giant sweet version of the classic, with two cake flavors and buttercream "condiments".

Ingredients 

Vanilla Cake Layers:

  • 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1 3/4 cups granulated white sugar
  • 4 large eggs
  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • 3 cups cake flour
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1 cup whole milk

Chocolate Cake Layer:

  • 1/2 cup whole milk
  • 1/2 teaspoon white vinegar
  • 1/2 cup + 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 cups granulated white sugar
  • 1/2 cup good-quality Dutch-processed cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 large egg, room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup freshly brewed coffee

Buttercream + Cake Decorating:

  • 2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
  • 2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1 to 2 tablespoons whole milk
  • 1/4 teaspoon gel food color in green
  • 1/4 teaspoon gel food color in yellow
  • 1 teaspoon or more gel food color in red
  • White sugar pearls or white fondant punched out into small circles using a piping tip as a cutter

Tools:

  • Piping bag fitted with an open star tip
  • Piping bag fitted with a leaf tip
  • Piping bag fitted with a medium-size open circle tip
  • Piping bag fitted with a large open circle tip
  • Cake board
  • Cake turntable

Instructions 

To Make the Vanilla Cake:

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and line two 8 x 2-inch round cake pans.
  • In the bowl of a stand up mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar on high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula as needed. Turn the mixer down to low speed and add the eggs one at a time until incorporated, then add the vanilla extract.
  • In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. In a large liquid measuring cup, whisk together the cream and milk.
  • With the mixer on low speed, add one-third of the flour mixture, then half of the milk mixture. Keep alternating as you add the mixtures, finishing with the dry ingredients. I mix for about 30 to 60 seconds total—you do not want to overmix this batter, but be sure the ingredients are incorporated.
  • Divide the batter evenly among two cake pans and smooth the tops with an offset spatula. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, checking for doneness at 25 minutes. The cakes will be done when a toothpick inserted in the centers comes out clean and the tops of the cakes are light golden brown.
  • Cool the cakes completely in their pans before frosting. Or alternatively, cool them for 30 minutes in their pans and then gently turn them out onto a wire rack to finish cooling completely.

To Make the Chocolate Cake Layer:

  • Make sure the oven is preheated to 350 degrees F. Grease and line one (8-inch x 2-inch) round cake pan.
  • In a liquid measuring cup, mix together the whole milk and the white vinegar. Let the mixture sit until curdled, about 10 minutes.
  • In the meantime, in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together on low speed the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
  • Once the milk is curdled, whisk it in a large bowl with the vegetable oil, eggs, and vanilla extract until combined.
  • With the mixer on low speed, slowly pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture. Add the hot coffee and mix just until the batter is incorporated, about 30 seconds.
  • Add the cake batter to the prepared cake pans and smooth the top with an offset spatula. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, checking for doneness at 30 minutes.
  • Cool the cake completely in its pans before frosting.

To Decorate the Cake:

  • In the bowl of a stand up mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on high speed until it is light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula. Add the sifted powdered sugar, vanilla extract and milk, if using. Mix on low speed to combine the ingredients. Once the sugar is incorporated, crank the mixer to thigh speed and beat the mixture for another 2 minutes, until it has more than doubled in volume, for a fluffy whipped frosting.
  • Divide the buttercream in half. Set aside one bowl. Divide the contents of the second bowl evenly among three bowls. Mix the green gel color into the first bowl, yellow into the second bowl, and red into the third bowl. Note: sometimes “red” is a difficult color to achieve—it requires a lot of food gel coloring.
  • Fill a piping bag fitted with an open star tip with the uncolored buttercream. Fill a piping bag fitted with a leaf tip with the green buttercream. Fill a piping bag fitted with a medium-size round tip with the yellow buttercream. Finally, fill a piping bag fitted with a large round tip with the red buttercream.
  • Place a covered cake board on a cake turntable. Pipe a dab of uncolored buttercream onto the cake board. Place the first vanilla cake layer onto the board. Starting from the outside and working your way in toward the middle, pipe the uncolored buttercream in concentric circles, creating a giant, generous swirl of buttercream. Stop when you get to the center.
  • My frosting was super soft because it’s summer! So transfer the cake to the fridge to firm up a bit, if needed. Pipe the nest layer of uncolored buttercream just as you did the first layer.
  • Next, begin piping green buttercream “lettuce” right on top of the uncolored buttercream layer, using the piping bag with the leaf tip. The idea is not to be too uniform with your leaves! Squeeze the piping bag a little harder to get bigger leaves, and overlap and layer them in a way that looks organic.
  • Squiggle on your “mustard” using the yellow buttercream. I pipe large loops all along the exterior, on top of the lettuce layer but not covering it.
  • Using the red buttercream for your ketchup, piping this is an ongoing loop on top of the yellow buttercream layer but in between the yellow loops.
  • Carefully place the final vanilla cake layer, unleveled and dome side up, on top of the “ketchup buttercream. Gently press down to adhere.
  • Place the sugar pearls on top of the cake for a sesame seed bun effect.

Notes

Short cut alert:
It is not lost on me that this recipe is A LOT of work. It has lots of components. I'm going to say that if you're short on time and in search for a short cut, I would go the boxed cake mix route. A chocolate cake box and vanilla one will do the trick.
You can also make some of these components the day ahead. Make the cake layers a day ahead and wrap them with plastic wrap and stick them in the fridge. You can also make the frosting ahead, too.
Equipment:
8-inch Cake Pans | Kitchen Towels | Piping Bags | Silicon Spatula | Wilton Piping Kit | Offset Spatula | Americolor Food Coloring

Nutrition

Serving: 12g | Calories: 235kcal | Carbohydrates: 21g | Protein: 43g | Fat: 23g | Saturated Fat: 32g | Cholesterol: 12mg | Sodium: 24mg | Potassium: 43mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 23g | Vitamin A: 35IU | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 34mg | Iron: 2mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Additional Info

Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Like this Recipe? Please Rate & comment below!

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Looking for more cake recipes? Here are some of my favorites:

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Hi! I'm Adrianna and this is my cozy space on the internet that is super-charged by butter, flour and copious amounts of pasta. Stay awhile, will you!

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5 Comments

  1. Adrianna!!!! I f*cking LOVE that you made the burger cake!!!! I totes agree that it’s a labour of love – you can definitely make the cake in stages and then assemble day-of serving!!! You are equally hilarious and wonderful and I am so happy to know you!!! Thank you for your sweet support!! BIG CAKE ENER-G!!!

  2. I am NOT complaining about the fact that you’ve had two cake posts in a row. This looks like a beautiful hamburger cake. It reminds me of that cheeseburger cake from the first episode of “Sugar Rush” on Netflix, except yours look so much cleaner and more colorful! It may be hot in Los Angeles, but this cake is seriously SIZZLING.

    1. haha yes, definitely neater but probably because I had more than 1 hour to bake it. those time constraints would leave me sweating and bothered…and with ugly cake.