The Making of a Graduation Cake

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In this post, I will be showing you how to make this graduation cake with fondant silhouettes. It is a very straightforward cake to make and requires very little prep work before hand. This tutorial can be used when making Graduate Cap Cakes (Mortarboard Cakes) like the one below. To see more of this cake, click here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE PROCESS:

(1) One thing you need to do earlier is make the square board for the graduate cap. To do this, roll out thick black fondant, cut it into a square (6″ in this case) and leave it to dry for about a week. Alternatively, if you do not have the luxury of time, roll out the fondant and drape a square cake card with it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

(2) Next, you can choose to make the parchment before hand by rolling a log of fondant with a white fondant sheet. I made mine while working on the cake. Making it before hand will give you one less thing to do on the cake making day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(3) The top tier was baked in a deep glass bowl with a top circumference of 6 inches. Wilton sports ball pans can also be used for this purpose. If you are making only a graduate cap cake, make use of a larger bowl. Using a bowl saves you the stress of carving the cake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

(4) Drape the bottom 8″ tier with marbled fondant and place it on the prepared cake board. Place it towards the back of the board to make room for the parchment in front. I have tutorials here and here on how to achieve marbled effect. This marbled effect was however not my original plan. I added blue color paste to my white fondant and started kneading it. I then noticed that some lovely blue streaks were forming on the fondant and made the decision to roll the fondant out that way. It ended up giving me a lovely marbled look which I decided to go with. Note that when using marbled fondant you have only one chance to drape your cake. So be careful not to tear the fondant during draping as kneading the fondant again will destroy the marbled look.

 

 

 

 

 

 

(5) Next, place dowels in the bottom tier and stack the top tier on top. I chose to cover the top tier first with white fondant before stacking it because I wanted to seal in the buttercream. This step is however not important.

 

 

 

 

 

 

(6) Next, roll out black fondant the same height as the top tier and enough to go around the tier. Use a fondant stitching wheel on the bottom of the black fondant and wrap the fondant around the top tier cutting out the excess fondant at the back. Brush the top tier with a bit of water before wrapping it. Use a pair of scissors to cut the middle of the folds at the top of the tier and overlap them on each other. Finish the look by running a fondant wheel over the seams.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(7) Next, brush the top tier with vodka to make it glossy. Be sure to use very little vodka so it does not run down and stain the bottom tier.

(8) Next, make the silhouettes on the bottom tier. I have a tutorial here on how to do this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(9) Next, brush the top of the top tier with melted white chocolate and place the square board on it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

(10) Next, make the tassel for the cap. Cut fondant into strips and join them together at one end. (I used the fettuccine cutter setting of my pasta machine to achieve this. I later on divided each strip into two because I wanted them to look smaller). Also twist two fondant cords together for the top part of the tassel. Join both parts together and wrap the joint with a strip of fondant. Place this on the square board making sure that the joint is resting completely on the square board (or the weight of the tassel will drag it down). Finish the look by placing a round fondant ball at the middle of the square board.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(11) Finish the look by wrapping the middle of the parchment with a strip of blue fondant and placing it on the board. That’s all there is to it. Happy caking!