A Cake in a Shape of a Burger?!

As mentioned in a blog post, (that was a while ago now), I have taken up a challenge in making my boyfriends 21st birthday cake. I know it's a month late but at least I managed to get it posted!

And yes it was a challenge and theres tons of buttercream involved!

I decided on a burger cake, not only to test my decorating skills but to celebrate my boyfriends birthday and celebrate our silly coupley in joke.
My boyfriend is a huge fan of comedy and adores the comedy style of Lee Evans. We both love his style of comedy and we have a little in joke of just saying:
"Burger"
So I made cake in the shape of a burger! Pretty simple really!
The original recipe and the tutorial was originally published by My Cake Decorating Magazine 

Recipe: Basic Chocolate Cake

•        4 Eggs
•        225g  diced unsalted butter, room temperature
•        225g  cup of caster sugar
•        175 self raising flour
•        1 teaspoon baking powder
•        50g  cocoa powder

Equipment:

•        Sieve
•        Bowlx2
•        Mixer
•        Measuring jug
•        Scraper
•        Cake tins 20cm/8inch x3
•        Angled palette knife
•        jug

1.    Preheat oven to 180c/350c/Gas Mark 4. Line and grease cake tins.

2.    Sieve together the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder in a bowl.

3.    Beat the butter, and sugar until light and fluffy using a mixer. Stop occasionally to scrape down the bowl.

4.    Crack all the eggs into a jug.

5.    Add the eggs a little at a time with the mixer on a higher speed. (if the mixture splits add a little bit of flour)

6.    Fold in half flour using a wooden spoon.

7.    Fold in the rest of the flour and fold in well.

8.    Divide the mixture between the two tins and smooth it down with an angled palette knife.

9.    Bake for 15 to 25 minutes.

Recipe: Decorating Materials 

•        200g buttercream
•        300g/1 pack of pale yellow sugar paste
•        150g/1 pack of brown sugar paste
•        20g/ 1 pack yellow sugar paste
•        25g /1 pack green sugar paste
•        15g/1 pack of red sugar paste
•        Chocolate brown blossom tint
•        Deep yellow blossom tint

Equipment:

•        Cake carving knife
•        Non stick cake board
•        No stick rolling pin
•        Cake smoother
•        Fluting and veining tool or a toothpick
•        Kitchen paper towels
•        Flat paintbrush
•        5/6cm round cutter
•        Small knife

     1.Once your cakes have cooled. Place them in the freezer to make them easier to carve. I left it overnight but you can leave it for about 2 hours.

    2. Using a cake carving night, trim around the top and bottom edge of the cakes to create a smooth rounded shape. Once edge of two of the cakes should be more rounded than the other, so that they look like a bun.

    3. Carve the third cake so that it’s rounded on both edges. Once trimmed, cover each cake with buttercream to crumb-coat and put in the fridge for an hour.

   4. Roll out the pale sugarpaste to about 2-3mm thick and place it over one of the bun cakes. Use hands to smooth it over the top of the cake down and around the curved sides and tuck it under the bun. Tuck it in as neatly as you can. Smooth over the cake with the cake smoother, using a circular polishing motion. Do the same with the other cakes. Cover the second cake with pale yellow sugar paste and the third more rounded cake with brown sugar paste.

   5. Using a fluting and veining tool or a toothpick, make tiny little holes in the burger cake, press it into the side of burger to make pitted details in varying shapes and sizes. Make it look as random as possible.

   6. Tip a little chocolate brown blossom tint onto a kitchen paper towel and dip in a clean flat paintbrush. Sweep it over the sides of the burger to make it look more ‘greasy’.

   7. Tip a little bit of the deep yellow blossom tint onto another kitchen paper towel, tint the sides and top of the ‘top bun’ cake. Brush around the edge of the ‘bottom bun’ cake as well.

   8. Spoon a little buttercream onto the top of the ‘bottom bun’ (This is the unfinished side and should be facing upwards) and spread it out. Place the brown burger on top. The buttercream should glue it in place.

   9. Roll out the yellow sugar paste as thin as you can, about 1mm thick. Cut out a square using a cake smoother to get a straight edge. Roll out the paste again and roll out 3 more squares.

  10. Smear more buttercream on top of the burger and place the yellow squares on top of the burger, so that corner of it drapes over the edge to look like cheese slice.

  11. Roll out green flower paste as thinly as you can (it should ideally be a bit thinner than the cheese and larger diameter). Cut around the edge to make a wavy line and neaten it up. Dab a little more buttercream onto the cheese slices and place the green paste on top of the cheese. Pinch the top to create folds and make it look like green lettuce. Make 2 more lettuce leaves using the same technique.

  12. Roll out the red sugarpaste to 2mm thick and use a round cutter to cut 4/5 circles. Attach each one to the top of the lettuce with a smear of buttercream. Position them near the outer edge of the cake so that they can be seen. 

   13. Now put a decent layer of buttercream onto the tomatoes and lettuce, then carefully stick the top layer of your burger bun onto the cake.

i 

   I've got to admit that I'm very proud of this cake! I took a ridiculous amount of photos and even decorated the cake long into the night. 

   That's why I'm in a dressing gown and looking very tired. Not the best picture ever. 

   I used white chocolate letters to spell out 'Happy 21st Birthday Rob', which I stuck on with some more, you guessed it, buttercream!

   

   This cake is not for one person. Don't be greedy with it Grandad. It must be a generational thing.  

    

    My boyfriend and his house mates loved it so much the cake didn't late long. It was eaten so quickly I didn't get the chance to take a single picture!!

   Bake On!

   Penny x