Graduation Cake and Goodies

My son graduated from high school this week.  Lots of planning went into the party, food and of course, the desserts.

Graduation cake pops

Cupcake pops

The graduation cake was three-tiered.  Everything was edible.  Starting from the top, we have a fondant graduation cap with gum paste tassels and graduation diploma roll.  These all rest atop two 6" Oreo Cookie cakes covered in vanilla frosting, covered in homemade MMF, and decorated with black fondant keys.  This represents my son's musical side, of course.  The Oreo cake was a hit with the kids/grads at the party.

The next tier is made up of two almond butter cakes, with buttercream frosting, covered in MMF that I tinted purple.  This purple MMF was draped around the cake to resemble curtains, which opened on to a black background (fondant) and the comedy/tragedy drama faces made of gum paste and sprayed with edible silver food color spray.  This is for my son's love of drama.  

The bottom tier was two 10" carrot cakes with cream cheese frosting.  Musical notes and pianos decorates its sides.   My carrot cake is THE BOMB.  A friend who could not decide between carrot and Oreo got a little bit of both.  She ate the carrot cake up, saying how amazing it was, and then stating she was mad.  Mad because she had Oreo cake to finish when she wished it were just more carrot.

Drama/Music-themed Graduation Cake

The Aftermath

Popcorn and Graduation Caps

I did some more work with Bakerella's book, practicing for two separate events; the Drama troupe's end-of-year party and Jacob's graduation party.

For the drama troupe we have

Popcorn pops.  Yellow cake, chocolate frosting, vanilla candy.  SO cute!  My red food marker was just not working well enough.  Next time, I am using a paint brush and red gel food coloring.  Hopefully it will be more vivid.  The popcorn?  Mini marshmallows scored through 3 times with a knife.

For Graduation

I made the tops using a candy mold, but they're a bit too thick.  This is why I practice.  Next time, I'll fill the molds a little less.  Also, the top little blob holding the tassel is supposed to be a mini M&M but I did not have any.  I'll buy some for the ones I do make for his party.  They're cute though!

Finishing the Graduation Cake

I love (not really) how I panic RIGHT before finishing a cake. "It's going to look bad." "It'll taste horrible." It happens each and every time. I'm a nut.

Here's the mortar board I made. Fondant-covered cardboard.

There are the 12" x 3" cakes I baked. I'm torting and filling at this stage.

Here are the 12" cakes, stacked and crumb-coated.

This is the small ball pan cake, covered in buttercream

The same ball pan, covered in black fondant, with the mortar board on top and gum paste numbers.

The bottom cake is actually two 8" carrot cakes iced and stacked on top of each other. The 12" cakes were in the fridge waiting to have fondant added to them

Here are the 12" cakes, covered in marbled purple mmf.

TA DAAAAA! The cake was a hit. Rachel kept saying "It's perfect," even when I wasn't within her view.

Congratulations Rachel!!

Graduation Gal w/Cap

Gumpaste Graduation Gal

My ex-sister-in-law Denise invited us (my husband David, too) to her daughter Rachel's graduation dinner party. Rachel is Jacob's first cousin on his dad's side; Denise is my ex-husband's sister. My ex-in-laws are all really terrific. I said yes, and after I hung up, I sent Denise a text message: "Want me to make the cake," to which she replied "YES!!!!"

I have the cake idea in mind (Thanks to Cakecentral.com, of course) and I started to make the gumpaste accents early so they would harden in time. One of the things that will be on the cake is a mini-Rachel in her cap and gown.

I started with the torso. I made the blouse and added some decoration to them collar.



Next up, I made the legs. She'll be kneeling.



Her school colors are purple and gold, and her cap and gown will be purple.





Time for the face. Hi Rachel!

Notice the hands holding the diploma.

"Rachel" was left to dry a couple of days, and then I got.....dum dum dum, a clay extruder! You can find them at Michael's or buy them on-line at Amazon.

So, why'd I get one?



TA DA!!! HAIR! I LOVE IT!!!

Next up will be placing her cap on her head, and then on to making and decorating the cakes. The party's not for over a week & 2 days, and I am so excited!