I got to travel up north last week for Thanksgiving, so spent some good time playing games, shopping and eating with the fam. Ahhh. The day I came in, my mother was undertaking a serious challenge: to replicate the amazing burger cake that she’d made for my cousin’s 6th birthday (he’s now 23). Behold, the original:
Aww, adorable! And such a beautiful cake! Mom had a special request this year to make a burger cake for another 7 year old’s birthday, and this time she was determined to improve on the original. Luckily, I was there to help, laugh and take pictures.
First, we spent way too long getting the colors just right. We added food dye, brought the bowl over to the photo album to compare, then adjusted. It was painstaking, and involved lots of sentences like “Buns are mostly orangey, with just a hint of brown”. The cheese and lettuce were made with almond paste mixed with dyes:
It goes without saying that mom and I had some funky looking hands at the end of this adventure. Once the frostings were all right, the building could begin:
I’m pretty proud of my decision to texture the patty layer.
A sprinkling of pinenuts went on top to simulate the sesame seeds, and the world’s biggest birthday burger cake was complete. Our friend Greg likes it:
Yum. Meat cake. The cheese color may have been a little off, so we thought it looked like old cheese – the stuff that’s been sitting out a little too long at the barbeque.
Here’s my beautiful mother in front of her masterpiece. I have no idea how they ended up cutting into this behemoth, but it doesn’t really matter, does it?
Eating the Garden 
You take some great pictures! Thanks for all of your help – too easy to go nuts without a calm soul to talk you down when it starts to go horribly wrong. Can’t wait to see the cakes you will create in the future. Your pumpkin bread pudding with caramel sauce is still one of my new, all-time Thanksgiving favorites. XOXO
Carrie,
Now I see where you get your talents – from your Mom! That cake is a masterpiece!
Eileen Geremia
the one she made for my 9th was better!
I’m just scared that the cake looks juicy.
Congrats!
Can you do a patty melt?
Randy 🙂
Hilarious Carrie – absolutely hilarious. I thought that the Raggedy Ann and Jukebox cakes my mom did for birthdays were pretty impressive but… they pale in comparison. I bow down to the meat cake queens.
Hi to both Jen & Mary for me next time you speak to them.
I don’t know which looks better: Me? or that luscious Meat Cake!
She makes a mean carrot cake too. It was good even after a year in the freezer!
I love this! Reminds me of the old school McDonald’s…
this makes a computer email really worthwhile..loved seeing Mary put Carrie to work..the cake is fantastic but we are lucky as we have seen a lot of the kitchen cuisine through the years and got to taste it too… We will look foreward to a fantastic dessert on Xmas Eve for the whole Franklin clan..inclluding Grandpa Ted’s cookies..much love, Nonnie and Grandpa….
AWESOME!!! I LOVE THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is so cool!!! Want to know more about the pumpkin bread pudding with carmel sauce thingy too!!! This is truly the most fun cake I have ever seen! I say we have a “masterchef day” at Xmas! Teach us Car!!!!!!
Can we trade moms? I’ll even throw in a little white interloper poodle…
I heard about this cake, but wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen the picture!! Great job Mary and Carrie…. what a lucky 7 year old! It was especially neat that you still had the old picture to compare with the new!
Keep up the good work Franklin women!!
Love, Jane