Burgers and fries for dessert!

I had an idea a while back. I wanted to make Jon a hamburger birthday cake for his 21st birthday. Something memorable. I looked up different versions of it and jumped in with both feet and the mixer running. 

 My first thought was to make the bun out of angel cake. That didn't turn out as well as I hoped, but it all worked out as I purchased raspberries making the angel cake MY birthday cake! The yellow cake ended up the bun. I wanted it larger (I didn't pay attention to the differences in 8/9 in cake pans..I have 9in ones), but didn't have enough yellow cake batter. I shouldn't have worried.  I sprinkled chopped up white chips on the top layer for sesame seeds (cake in the far back of the above  photo) and got a tad carried away. While these were waiting to be assembled, I was talking to Jon's brother and he suggested I needed a ham slice layer~ so that was the last 'cake' I made.

 I frosted the bottom layer with 'mayo' (white frosting). The onions, lettuce, hothouse tomatoes (they aren't red enough for hone grown tomatoes!) were made from store bought Wilton Vanilla Fondant. (I didn't like it, thankfully, it is only on the edges!) During assembly (which didn't take long) I put strawberry jam over a layer of chocolate (the burger) and then the strawberry cake 'ham' slice.The next burger wasn't as flat as I hoped, so I filled in the edges with chocolate frosting.

 The last layer of goo was yellow frosting 'mustard' and more fondant. I topped it with the yellow cake I'd sprinkled with the chocolate chip bits. It didn't turn out too bad, even if I DID forget the cheese!

 The last thing we added were the fries. Steak fries are easy to cut from pound cake. Tasty, too!

                       Here are the two birthday cakes together. It is a tad blurry, but Jon was pretty excited!

 So, if you have a birthday or just any kind of party coming up, this is a very easy cake to make (really, the time was baking the things and playing with the fondant for the first time--eww). Jon thinks there may be 301 cubic inches of cake in this, but am betting he's off a bit. It was 9 inches tall and the cake was made in 9 in pans, but am still unsure of his math! It did taste good and there is a lot of it left. It is not 'professional' by any means, but it was fun and, as I mentioned above, EASY. The latter is very important in my book!

gooey and delicious!

I used to make these years ago and the memory stuck in my head to the point I had to find the recipe again. I wanted to share it and found several versions online. This one is closest to the one I have. Peanut Butter Marshmallow Brownies, easy and decadent. 

 After making your brownie base, you add the marshmallow creme. Or mini marshmallows--about 4 cups--if you don't want to open up a jar of creme. I placed the brownies back in the warm oven to 'melt' the marshmallows and then let them cool completely. The chocolate layer, I added too much of something (PB, probably) and it is still gooey instead of hard. Not really a problem, just messy.

In this photo of layers, it looks as if there is marshmallow on the bottom. Not true. The confection is in a glass pan and when I took the picture, there was a reflection! Jon liked this so much, he ate almost a half of a row before bed! I am glad I dusted it off and made these again.

Just more birds~

After the stormy day and night, puddles were the perfect spot to bathe! 

 Jon and I liked this one in particular. It has the finch (NOT Junco) sitting in profile above the metal cut out Cardinal.

For the Birds~

January juncos (well, for the most part!). It is so much fun to see these little chirpy, cheeky creatures darting around the yard. We don't get partridges here, but this month we got juncos in our pear trees. Haven't seen many chickadees yet. Still hoping and waiting. Oregon, Dark-eyed juncos are a little different from ones in other parts of North America. Their colors tend to be broader, also. 

 NOT juncos, but they sit still for a camera! They also like the sunflower seed heads I put out the other day. It is about time, usually these heads rot and I end up tossing them.

 Jonathan took over my camera for a bit and caught this junco posing! He was near the window and since he is taller, he could see over the screen to photograph the feeder.

A bird does not sing because it has an answer.  It sings because it has a song.  ~Chinese Proverb