Hamburgers and Hot Buttered Rum....Cupcakes?

For the past couple years my husband's employer has put together a picnic in the summer to give everyone the opportunity to mingle outside of work. They set it up so whoever attends must contribute a covered dish or dessert. Everyone usually brings some good things and there is food everywhere. In all seriousness bringing a covered dish that does not have to be refrigerated really isn't as easy as people think. Last year I made an appetizer of bacon wrapped stuffed jalapenos. They were of course a hit. But silly me forgot to wear gloves and had fire hands for a few days. Lesson learned. This year I decided that I for sure wanted to do a dessert. And since I have been practicing my dessert presentation I decided to be fancy. This did not come without a road block. When I got home from work at 6:45pm and stepped into my kitchen with a game plan to get 4 dozen cupcakes done, I also stepped in a puddle. A HUGE puddle. Not knowing the source of all of this water I felt the panic set in. Did Joel leave the freezer open? Is water leaking from the pipes? Is our roof leaking? NO! Something even worse....my fridge and everything in it was dying a slow warm death. So I had to rush and make my buttercream, use my eggs, and try to keep everything cool in my pocket sized mini fridge and stay sane all at the same time. But my end result was impressive and oh so awesome. I think I did the happy dance a few times during decoration. I'm sure Joel got a laugh out of me doing air kicks and fist pumps with a pastry bag in hand. So without further adieu...I give you Hot Buttered Rum Cupcakes and Hamburger Cupcakes.

Hamburger Cupcakes

1 box vanilla cake (prepared according to package)
1 box brownie mix (prepared according to package)
Buttercream icing (homemade or purchased)
Red, Green, Yellow food coloring
White Sprinkles

Bake cake and brownies according to package. Let cool completely. Remove cupcakes from wrappers and slice in half horizontally. Cut your brownies, you can do squares or circles for the "meat". Divide your butter cream into three bowls and mix up your "mustard" "ketchup" and "lettuce". Place one brownie piece on bottom half of cupcake. Spread or pipe on mustard and ketchup. I suggest piping the lettuce for a more realistic look. Place the top of the "bun" on the brownie and frosting. Scatter the sprinkles on top of each bun. Admire the awesomeness.

I am choosing not to post the buttered rum cupcakes for a few reasons. One is because it is so awesome, if you want to know it, I want to personally give you the gift of this recipe. And two...I really eyeballed this recipe. I couldn't exactly tell you the measurements verbatim. I will however tell you I got the inspiration from The Cupcakery. I changed the recipe quite a bit and topped it with my brown butter cream frosting. Nommyness times ten!!

Listening To:

Fire It Up-Modest Mouse
Army of Me-Bjork
Arizona-Kings of Leon
Boys Don't Cry-The Cure
Time to Pretend-MGMT