Hamburgers and Hot Dogs

Over the summer, our church has their annual festival with great games, delicious food and fun raffles.  This year, Molly was the lucky winner of what we are referring to as "The Meat Basket."  It was a huge raffle basked filled with Heinz products, including ketchup, mustard, BBQ sauce, Heinz 57 sauce and several others.  It also came with a gift certificate for Tom Friday's freezer special with over 40 pounds of different meats including hamburgers and hot dogs.

Well, today we had a "meat party" at Grammy and Papa's house to commemorate their new pool and Molly's big win.  We had lots of friends over and enjoyed hamburgers and hot dogs, along with many other delicious sides, pulled pork and chicken.  I was in charge of the dessert so I stuck with the theme and made hamburger and hot dog cupcakes...but don't worry, there isn't any meat in them.

We made yellow cupcakes and put cream cheese canned frosting on top, plus a few black and gold sprinkles (or Jimmies, if you are from Pittsburgh) to help cheer on our Steelers.  Then the fun part....the hamburgers and hot dogs.

For the hamburgers, we used Nilla Wafers for the bun and a new Oreo Peanut Butter Fudge Creme for the hamburger. (these are delicious, by the way)  We softened a lemon Starburst and flattened it out for the cheese.  On top of the cheese, we used red piping gel for our "ketchup" and then some green frosting piped out with a leaf tip for lettuce.  We used frosting to stick our layers together then added the top Nilla Wafer bun and piped a few white "sesame seeds" on top with frosting.

For the hot dogs, we used caramel squares for the actual dog.  These are very pliable so we rolled them into little hot dogs with our hands.  We cut a circus peanut in half on the bottom and used these for our buns.  We added the hot dog to the bun and then piped some red piping gel on top for our "ketchup" topping.  

It was pretty simple and very well received.  The party was a hit and a good time was had by all.  So much so that everyone is tired and ready to head to bed early instead of making lunch tomorrow.  Therefore, Molly will be the lucky recipient of one of her favorite school lunches, Papa John's Pizza.  The first of several, but not many bought school lunches.