Countdown to Graduation!

            With both college and high school graduations right around the corner, graduates and their families are sure to be scrambling around trying to plan the perfect party to celebrate. Nowadays, specialty cakes are known to be the centerpiece and greatest hit of the party, commonly assembled in the form of a pile of books or decorated with symbols of the person-of-honor’s future plans. Today, I just wanted to share a few cakes I’ve made to commemorate a few people’s special days.

            First, as shown below, I constructed a cake for my sister, Lauren’s, college graduation. After graduating from Montclair State University in spring of 2011 with a degree in Latin and the Classics, I thought it highly fitting to build the Roman Coliseum out of her favorite cake. 

            Yellow cake with chocolate frosting, the 14 inch-round cake consisted of three layers, held together with buttercream frosting and Duff’s fondant dyed beige. After lining the sides with windows and archways of a Romanesque nature, I piped mocha frosting around the edges as a border and molded three small trees from green fondant to stand at the front of the Coliseum. I then proceeded to write “Congratulations Lauren!” with a graduation cap with a black icing tube and small tip attachment.

            Next was a hot pink graduation cake for my ex-boyfriend’s cousin, Christa, who was leaving behind high school in pursuit of a culinary career at the Culinary Institute of America. The red velvet square cake, adorned with a chocolate graduation cap and starts, was made alongside fifty red velvet and chocolate cupcakes topped with mini fondant graduation hats and paper diplomas.

            These cakes made both Lauren and Christa’s day that much better, a special treat to celebrate hard work and a promising, successful future.