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These little bite sized burgers are easier than they look & taste amazing! The full tutorial with clearer images is available in my book 'Funky, Fresh Food!' which can be purchased online in our eStore for as low as $9.95! But for now here is a quick, short 'how-to' for my take on these perfect party treats.

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First you will need to have a batch of baked then cooled vanilla cupcakes and chocolate cupcakes. Cut your vanilla cupcakes in half, these will be the buns. Now cut your chocolate cupcakes into thirds, these will be your patties. You can use any portion of the cupcake for the patty but I prefer to use the middle or base of the cupcake as they are flat sided portions.
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Next you will need red frosting. You can either pipe on the icing or spread it with a spoon, it is entirely up to you. Place the red frosting on the base of the cupcake for the tomato sauce/ketchup.
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Now place a section of the chocolate cupcake on top, this is the patty.
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Now the cheese is optional of course so the extra effort isn't required, but for the cheese I made some yellow fondant rolled out to 3mm thick and cut it into squares. The mustard is orange/yellow tinted frosting. Place the mustard and/or cheese on top of the 'patty'.
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Now add the lettuce. In a ziplock bag place 1/2 cup of shredded coconut & 4-6 drops of green food dye. Zip the bag shut then shake the bag until the dye is spread evenly. Sprinkle the 'lettuce' on top of the mustard.
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Now add the tops on. To make the burgers look more realistic I like to brush some melted butter (or orange juice if I have any available) on the tops then sprinkle on some sesame seeds. The seeds don't add any extra taste, they are more so for appearance so no need to worry about the cupcakes tasting funny. :)
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If there is one thing my son loves more than food it's definitely trains! So this year for his birthday I decided to do a train themed birthday party - however - I didn't want a licensed or character party so had to avoid the massive range of Thomas the Tank Engine & Chuggington. Because of this, I made all my decorations by myself :)

We'll start off with the biggest decoration of all - the pinata! I made this bad boy with 3 pieces of large poster cardboard, some tissue paper for decoration, masking tape to hold it all together, some string to tie it up with & glue. I miscalculated my measurements so I had to tape some extra cereal boxes lying around to add length & I used a toilet roll for the chimney of the train.

Here is the before decoration & finalized.
For the games we are doing simple ideas because the little ones will all be around the 2-5 year old mark. So we have chosen the pinata & a small game of pass the parcel. I was browsing through the shops the other day searching for pass the parcel goodies that fell into the theme of trains but couldn't find anything I liked that would suit both boys and girls. Just as I was about to leave I came across these pop up books which were on sale for only $1 each! I thought they were perfect but way too heavy for little ones to pass around 15 pop-up board books so I improvised. In each layer of the pass the parcel there is 2 candy rolls & a little note tied around them that reads "Choo Choo Choose A Book! :)" They will then at the end of the game go to the table where the books will be set for them to choose one of the 3 types of pop-up books available.
And below we have his cupcake toppers made with a 2" circle cutter & a sheet of printed circle designs. All you need to do is cut out what you would like on the top of the cupcake then use a hot glue gun (or any sturdy glue) to stick the cut out onto a toothpick or lollypop stick for you to place into the cupcake after you have iced them. Next is a decoration I made to stick into the ground - It is just a train cutout hot glued to some bamboo skewers. And on the end we have the front door sign - something simple, just a paper printout with some ribbon decorations.
Below is the self explanatory stuff - the cups, crayon boxes, colouring in sheets, party hats, the birthday banner & the snack containers.
Finally the take home party favours - I kept it train themed & made a DIY Train Track Candy Bag - It contains 6 m&m's, 2 strips of licorice and 6 chocolate coated licorice bullets. They look like the picture on the left & get set up like the one on the right.
The rest of the party remains a surprise until after the party on the 16th of February. :) There is loads of food fun & decoration ideas to share with you after that! :)