Hot dogs and Hamburgers for Dessert??

When you work at a company that makes hot dogs, sausage, burgers, sliced meats and bacon, bringing in desserts for work needs to get fun and creative.   A few years ago I worked at a restaurant company,  one day pre-blog I made cupcake hamburgers and cookie fries.   Everyone just loved them.  So for the last couple months I have wanted to create a dessert that would match some of the items that are made by my current company. Obviously putting bacon into a dessert would be an easy option and becoming quite the popular one. That however wasn't the route I wanted to take.  I wanted something a little more interesting,  I wanted to show them my interpretation of a hot dog. Since it happens to be the summer and hot dog season, there is no better time like the present. 

INGREDIENTS:

• Box of Yellow/White cake mix and box ingredients 
• Box of any cake mix you like and box ingredients
• 3 cups of vanilla icing (1 1/2  container if store bought)
• Approx 2-3 cups Red and Orange coating chocolate
• Yellow and Red food paste
• Candy sticks or Skewers

INSTRUCTIONS:

1) Follow the instructions for both cake mixes.  The yellow/white mix should be baked in mini loaf pans for the buns.  Let cool in pan for 5 minutes, then remove to cool on a wire rack.   

2) Bake the other cake mix in a 9x13 pan to use for make the "hot dog" cake pops. 

3) Once cake is cool, crumble into a bowl and mix with 2 cups of icing, reserving 1 cup of icing for mustard/ketchup icing toppings

4) Form the cake-icing mixture into mini logs about the length on the mini loafs and 1/2- 1 inch thick.  Place them on a parchment lined container or sheet.  Let the formed logs cool in fridge for several hours or freezer for half an hour. 

5) Melt the red and orange chocolate together in a medium bowl over a double boiler. Start with a small amount of each and add as needed to get a colour close to hot dogs.  Gently place the hot dogs on to the candy sticks or skewers, one at a time and dip into the melted chocolate to cover the cake.   Tap off excess. 

6) Stand up the cake hot dog in a cup or Styrofoam to cool and dry. 

7) While the "hot dogs" are drying, carve out a groove in each mini loaf cake using a small circle cookie/fondant cutter for the hot dog to sit in. 

8) Remove the sticks from the dried "hot dogs" and place one into each loaf groove.

9) Using yellow and red food paste die half the remaining icing red and half yellow to create ketchup and mustard.  Place each into a piping bag with tip 2 or 3.   Zigzag icing on each "hot dog" to create the look of condiments on the "hot dogs". 

These were a hit!  There were a lot of double takes.  People couldn't believe it was actually cake.  Super cute and cool, I think.    Perfect for a end of summer BBQ.

MEG's RATING : D-EEEEE-LICIOUS!    (mostly based on fun and creativity)