Sweet Sliders

No need to fire up the grill for these hamburger sliders!

With summer soon upon us, our schedules are sure to fill up quickly with backyard BBQ's. Looking for something to bring? Here's a treat everyone will love, even vegetarians!

I came across this great idea when my sister, a cupcake connoisseur, mentioned the idea of making festive cupcakes for her birthday. Looking for ideas we went right to google. After typing 'cupcakes' in the google search box it came to my surprise that several people had uploaded pictures of hamburgers as cupcakes. Confused and intrigued, I decided to click on one of the images and much to my surprise, they were in fact cupcakes. Feeling ambitious I knew right then and there we HAD to make these 'mini hamburger slider' cupcakes. After a quick trip to the grocery store to pick up the necessities and several hours of mixing, baking, slicing and decorating the hamburgers...I mean...cupcakes, they came out better than I expected. They looked so much like a real hamburger slider that my father actually mistook them for real hamburgers! Boy was that a sweet surprise.

Here's my top secret recipe...

Mini Hamburger Cupcake Sliders

What you will need:

1 box of vanilla cake mix (additional required ingredients - water, eggs, oil)

1 box of browny mix (additional required ingredients - water, eggs, oil)

1 quart of vanilla 'white' frosting

1 cup of coconut shavings

3 tbs. of Sesame seeds

2 Ziploc bags

Green food coloring (5 drops)

Red food coloring (10 drops)

Yellow food coloring (2 drops)

Cupcake pan (2")

Preparations Instructions

First take your yellow cake mix and mix it per the instructions (you'll typically need water, eggs, and oil, as directed in mix package). Make sure to mix well so that there are no cake mix clumps. Using a 2" cupcake tray, cook your yellow cupcakes first. Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Once your cupcakes are done and cooling, combine your brownie mix per instructions (you'll typically need water, eggs, and oil, as directed in mix package). Fill each cupcake tray only about halfway to make your brownies. Do NOT fill it anymore, because otherwise the brownie 'burger' middles will be too thick.

As your brownies are cooling, take your yellow cupcakes and slice them in half, right under the 'cap.' Next, using a coating brush, brush the top of each cupcake with water and sprinkle them with sesame seeds. The water will make the sesame seeds stick and give it a more authentic 'burger' look.

Next, take your icing and divide it into two bowls. Mix in red and yellow food coloring into two separate bowls to make the ketchup and mustard icing.

Once your icing is ready, put each one into a separate Ziploc bag and cut a tiny corner off with scissors. Stack your slider cupcakes, the bottom yellow cupcake first, followed by the brownie burger middle. Next, ice the cupcakes with with the 'ketchup' icing, then the 'mustard' icing.

Then take the cup of coconut shavings and add 5 drops of green food coloring. This will give the coconut shavings that 'lettuce' look you're looking for. Next, sprinkle the 'lettuce' on top of the 'burger'.

Finally, put your yellow cupcake 'burger tops' on top of the 'lettuce,' 'ketchup,' and 'mustard.' Push down lightly so they stick, holding the bottom bun, burger and top bun with sesame seeds all together.

Voila! There you have it, Mini Hamburger Cupcake Sliders. Enjoy!

* If you thought these were great, wait until you see my 'french fries' and 'corn on the cob.' Soon to come!