Hamburger Buns

• A realistic hamburger cake needs two round cakes to form the top and bottom burger buns. The bottom bun should be leveled, but leave the top bun domed. Yellow cakes can be left unfrosted because of the golden brown color, but other cake flavors should be covered with buttercream frosting. Tint buttercream frosting with a bit of brown and yellow food coloring to achieve the golden brown color of a bun. When assembling the cake, frost the bottom bun first, smoothing out the frosting as much as possible with an icing spatula. Layer the hamburger and toppings on the bottom bun before topping it with the iced top bun. While not required, crispy rice cereal resembles sesame seeds on the top bun and helps distract from icing that isn't perfectly smooth.

The Hamburger Patty

• The approach for the hamburger patty depends on the desired flavor and appearance you wish to achieve. If you prefer three layers of cake in the hamburger cake, make the hamburger patty with a round cake covered in chocolate frosting. Bake a brownie in a round cake pan if you don't want to work with chocolate frosting. Alternatively, make marshmallow treats from chocolate crispy rice cereal. Shape the chocolate cereal treat in a rough circle to make a hamburger patty layer with a texture that closely resembles hamburger meat. Instead of a solid layer of marshmallow rice treats, you can press chocolate crispy rice cereal into chocolate frosting on a cake.

Hamburger Toppings

• Fondant comes into play when making realistic hamburger toppings for the cake. The toppings are only seen from the outside, so you don't need to completely cover the hamburger layer. Yellow fondant rolled thin and cut into triangles looks like melting cheese when draped around the edges of the hamburger layer. Similarly, green fondant works well for creating lettuce, but looks most realistic if you cut wavy edges. If you want tomatoes on the cake, cut circles from red fondant and place them around the edges. Ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise are easy to make with buttercream frosting tinted red, yellow or left white for mayonnaise. Add the frosting to a bag with a round decorating tip and squeeze it over the toppings just as you would add these condiments to a real hamburger.

A Side of Fries

• Cake isn't practical for making slender fries to complement the hamburger cake, but cookie dough works well if you want the fries to be edible. Roll out cookie sugar cookie or peanut butter cookie dough and cut it into several thin strips to make each fry. Bake the cookies for a few minutes or until golden brown. Instead of cookies, cut yellow or light tan fondant into fry shapes. Apply a light dusting of luster dust so the cookie or fondant fries glisten like greasy fries. A light dusting of sugar makes the fries appear salted. Serve the fries on a large plate alongside the hamburger or place them in a fry basket. Drizzle the fries with red frosting "ketchup" or add red frosting to a small ramekin.