If you want to take your cupcake game up a notch, try these Hamburger Cupcakes! Yellow cupcakes are turned into hamburger look-alikes by filling them with fudgy brownies, plenty of frosting, and fresh strawberry slices.
🍔 Easy Hamburger Cupcakes
Very important question: are Hamburger Cupcakes dinner, or dessert? If you have a mega sweet tooth like me, the answer is YES! All of the above. These cute homemade Hamburger Cupcakes are perfect for parties, summer gatherings, picnics, and more. Serve them with Sugar Cookie French Fries and lots of frosting “ketchup” for the ultimate dessert meal!
We’re more than a little obsessed with cute cupcakes around here, so be sure to check out our Mermaid Cupcakes, Narwhal Cupcakes, Pineapple Cupcakes, and Flamingo Cupcakes! And these Cookie Monster Cupcakes might be a new favorite; the frosting they are stuffed with is out of this world!
Table of Contents
🧾 Ingredients
Simplicity is the name of the game when it comes to these cupcakes! They’re meant to be fun and easy, so you can whip them up for a party, picnic, or make them with the kids on a whim. I recently made them with my 8-year old son and he was so thrilled with himself when his cupcake looked just like a hamburger at the end!
In my opinion, this is not the time for making everything by hand–we’re going for maximum results and minimum time! So I typically make these with boxed cake mix and brownie mix, and I’ve linked to my recommendations below. If you’re a do-it-yourselfer, I’ve also linked some homemade recipes for the cupcakes, brownies, and frosting. Do whatever is easiest for you, and remember that they’ll taste great whether you go store-bought or homemade! (The following are affiliate links, and I earn a commission from qualifying purchases.)
If You Like Store-Bought:
- Yellow cake mix, plus ingredients for making the mix
- Brownie mix, plus ingredients for making the brownies
- 1 tub of vanilla frosting
If You Like Homemade:
- 24 regular (or 12 jumbo) yellow cupcakes
- 1 pan of these fudgy brownies
- About two cups of buttercream frosting
You’ll Also Need:
- Sweetened shredded coconut for lettuce
- Fresh strawberries for tomatoes
- Kiwi slices for pickles (not pictured)
- Food coloring: red, green, and yellow
- Sesame seeds (for maximum authenticity!)
🥄 Equipment
At the risk of stating the obvious, the #1 piece of equipment you need are cupcake pans. I recommend using silicone pans, because these cupcakes are made without paper cupcake liners, and silicone pans release baked goods cleanly and easily. I like to make jumbo cupcakes, so the “hamburgers” are more true to size, but you can also use a regular cupcake pan to make them “slider” size. These options work great:
- Jumbo Silicone Muffin Pan (2.5″ diameter)
- Standard Silicone Muffin Pan (2″ diameter)
You will also want a round cutter for making the brownie “burgers.” If you’re making them jumbo sized, you’ll need a 2.5″ cutter and for regular sized you’ll need a 2″ cutter. To really complete the fast food vibe, consider getting red and white checked deli wrappers, and toothpicks with frills as a finishing touch.
📋 Instructions
Before you can assemble the hamburgers, you first need to get all the individual components ready! Bake the cupcakes following the box directions, then get all of your burger fixin’s together. Here’s a quick step-by-step breakdown, and you can get printable directions in the recipe card below.
Make the Hamburger Cupcake components
- Use a round cutter to cut circles out of the brownies to make the “patties.”
- Hull the strawberries, then slice them widthwise to create 1/4-inch thick strawberry rounds.
- Place shredded sweetened coconut in a plastic bag, and add a few drop of green food coloring.
- Knead the bag between your hands to distribute the color, until you have bright green coconut “lettuce.”
- Add red food coloring to vanilla frosting, and stir until you have a vibrant “ketchup” color. Depending on your food coloring, you might want to mix a little black or brown coloring in to deepen the red shade.
- Add yellow food coloring to vanilla frosting to make a “mustard” color. You can add a touch of orange or red to make it more mustard-y if you’d like.
Assemble the Hamburger Cupcakes
Once everything is prepped and ready, it’s time for the REALLY fun part: assembling the burgers!
- Slice a yellow cupcake in half. Pipe a squiggle of yellow frosting all around the edge, peeking out from the side, to look like mustard.
- Lay strawberry slices on top of the yellow frosting. Top the strawberries with a thin layer of frosting so the brownie has something to stick to.
- Set a brownie patty on top of the strawberries.
- Add a squiggle of red frosting around the edge to look like ketchup.
- Press a generous layer of green coconut on top of the red frosting.
- Add the top half of the cupcake. Brush the cupcake with corn syrup mixed with a little water, and sprinkle sesame seeds all over the top. Stick a frilled toothpick into it, and the transformation is complete!
💭 Variations
- Not into brownies? You can use a thick swirl of chocolate frosting or ganache in place of the brownie patty.
- Use a green fruit leather or fruit roll-up instead of green coconut.
- Similarly, you can use red fruit leather to replace the ketchup or the strawberries.
- Add slices of kiwi fruit to represent pickles
💡FAQs
If you are using fresh strawberries, enjoy them within 2 hours of assembly. The fresh berries will weep into the cupcakes and make them soft and soggy over time. If you omit the strawberries, they can be kept at room temperature for 6-8 hours. I recommend keeping them in an airtight container or covered cake stand, so they don’t dry out.
If you use canned frosting, they can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 3-4 days. If you use homemade frosting with butter, I recommend refrigerating them in an airtight container, and letting them come to room temperature before serving.
Happy hamburger-ing, SugarHeroes! Please leave a review if you give them a try–I love to hear how your baking turns out.
❤️ More Fun Desserts to Try
- Dirt Pudding Cups
- Peanut Butter Cup Brownies
- Narwhal Cupcakes
- Unicorn Milkshakes
- Tons of Cupcakes You’ll Love
Sugar Cookie French Fries
Oreo Fudge
Leave a Review!
If you make this recipe, let us know! Leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating on the recipe below, and leave a comment, take a photo and tag me on Instagram @elabau, or use #sugarhero on IG!
Hamburger Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 1 yellow cake mix, plus ingredients for making the mix
- 1 box brownie mix, plus ingredients for making the mix
- 1 vanilla frosting tub, 16 oz, approx. 2 cups
- Assorted gel food coloring, I use Americolor Brand: Super Red, Lemon Yellow and Leaf Green
- 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
- 1 lb fresh strawberries, washed and hulled
- Light corn syrup
- Sesame seeds
Instructions
To Make the Components:
- Preheat the oven to 350 F (175 C). Spray your cupcake pans well with nonstick cooking spray—silicone pans recommended if possible. Do not add paper liners. Prepare the yellow cake mix according to package directions, and divide the batter into 12 jumbo cupcakes or 24 regular cupcakes.
- Bake the cupcakes according to the package directions, and let them cool once out of the oven. Remove them carefully from the pans.
- Line a 9×13 pan with foil or parchment, and spray well with nonstick cooking spray. Prepare the brownie mix according to package directions and bake as instructed. Let the brownies cool completely.
- Divide the frosting equally between two bowls. Color one bowl with red food coloring so that it resembles ketchup. Depending on your food coloring, you might want to mix a little black or brown coloring in to deepen the red shade.
- Color the second bowl with yellow food coloring to make it look like mustard. You can add a touch of orange or red to make it more mustard-y if you’d like.
- Place the shredded sweetened coconut in a zip-top plastic bag, and add a few drop of green food coloring.
- Knead the bag between your hands to distribute the color, until you have bright green coconut “lettuce.”
- Slice the hulled strawberries widthwise to create 1/4-inch thick strawberry rounds.
- Use a round circular cutter to cut circles out of the brownies to make the "patties.” (2.5" for jumbo sized and 2" for regular sized.) You can press together the brownie scraps and cut out more circles to make as many as you need—it doesn’t matter if the rounds look perfect since they’ll be covered by all the other burger ingredients.
- Slice each cupcake in half. If they seem a little too tall to be buns, trim them from the middle to make them bun-sized.
To Assemble the Hamburgers:
- Pipe a squiggle of yellow frosting all around the edge, peeking out from the side, to look like mustard.
- Lay strawberry slices on top of the yellow frosting. Top the strawberries with a thin layer of frosting so the brownie has something to stick to.
- Set a brownie patty on top of the strawberries.
- Add a squiggle of red frosting around the edge to look like ketchup.
- Press a generous layer of green coconut on top of the red frosting.
- Add the top half of the cupcake. Brush the top of each cupcake with corn syrup (you can thin it out with water if it’s too thick to easily work with) and sprinkle with a generous pinch of sesame seeds.
- Stick a frilled toothpick through the cupcake, and the transformation into hamburgers is complete!
- Serve these within 2 hours of assembly, since the fresh berries will gradually soften the cupcakes. If you use canned frosting, these can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 3-4 days. If you use homemade frosting with butter, I recommend refrigerating them in an airtight container, and letting them come to room temperature before serving.
Recipe Notes
Measuring Tips
Our recipes are developed using weight measurements, and we highly recommend using a kitchen scale for baking whenever possible. However, if you prefer to use cups, volume measurements are provided as well. PLEASE NOTE: the adage “8 oz = 1 cup” is NOT true when speaking about weight, so don’t be concerned if the measurements don’t fit this formula.
Want to learn more about baking measurements and conversion?
This recipe is so much fun! I made these hamburgers and my family was so impressed! Thank you!
Thanks Bonnie! I am thrilled to hear your family enjoyed these 🙂