Giant hamburgers covered the lawns of houses, spilling over rooftops and blocking streets.
But this was no ordinary town, and these were no ordinary burgers.
They were made of sugar and flour, and the scene was a representation of Judi and Ron Barrett's children's book, "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs."
This year's Read-A-Thon week, hosted by the UF libraries, held its second annual Edible Book Contest on Wednesday.
The cake contest was a hit last year, and the libraries' staffs knew they should do it again this year, said Barbara Hood, spokeswoman for the George A. Smathers Libraries at UF. Hood said more than 20 cakes were entered in the contest.
The cakes were judged, and winners were chosen from five different categories.
Winners received a cookbook, a blue ribbon and a gift certificate for either Burrito Brothers or Wild Iris Books.
Sabrina Ahmed, a UF sophomore, said she initially attended the event to support the "The Cat in the Hat" cake her friend entered.
Ahmed said aside from her friend's cake, she was most impressed by the "Eragon" cake, which was in the shape of a dragon's head and designed after the dragon in the Christopher Paolini fantasy novel.
"The texture of it - it doesn't even look like cake," she said. "I don't think I could eat it. The spikes are intimidating."
The "Eragon" cake won the best fiction category. Its creator, Melissa Genosa, 16, of Eastside High School's Institute of Culinary Arts, said she worked on it for a week. She took a white cake with buttercream frosting and covered it in fondant, a sugary confection that can be sculpted.
Other winners included a "Powerpuff Girls" cake for best children's book and a lettuce-shaped carrot cake representing Beatrix Potter's "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" for most creative cake.
UF student Romain Artison said that though he found the pastries cool and original, they weren't enough to inspire him to create a concoction of his own.
"My cakes? They're just normal," Artison said.
