Simple Graduation Cakes

I have produced 4 graduation cakes and I do find they are great fun to make. I love the way they form a great part of the graduation parties we have held in our home. The point when we gather everyone together, turn out the lights, bring in the cake and celebrate the graduation has given us some treasured moments on video. The focal point has been great in terms of bringing our guests together and sets the scene for a tribute speech to the graduate. I would not call myself an expert in baking cakes and indeed I truly struggled the first time I made a cake. However after some practice I managed to bake the first one.

Baking the basic cake does on the face of it seem like a simple task. You can buy and use a cake mix, you can buy the basic cakes from a bakers, or you could make your own. I prefer to make the whole cake myself. In the end making the cake suited me as I could be sure of the taste and also control the quality.

The real added value is in the decorations. Making the overall cake is great but the decorations are the part that gets noticed. Those long lasting photos and videos will show your cake in it’s full glory. The hardest part is to get going with the design of the cake decorations. For my first cake I looked through lots of cake designs in baking type magazines. I had a lot of people coming to the party so I did need a big cake. I chose a tiered cake with the main decorations on top of the top tier.

The event is a graduation. I firmly believe that part of the decorations needs to be about graduation through congratulations and a message about the graduate. Indeed the graduation cakes decorating themes have been mainly about graduation. The other decorations really add a flavor of the graduate and may bring out their favorite pursuit or hobby. It is simple enough to produce the cake decorations. Generally, first the cake is frosted in the color that suit’s the overall decorations.

Secondly I make up a template with the design sketched out. It will have the congratulations message and the other design features detailed. The cake designs can usually be made with fondant in the color that suits you. You can make graduation caps, scrolls and also symbols of the graduate.

Those symbols could be a baseball for a baseball fan, a baseball bat, a golf ball, ballet shoes, or another suitable image. The fondant figure can be placed on the cake adding to the overall effect. Indeed you could have a full design with the entire cake being designed for a theme and the graduation symbols being added on top. For example for a Nascar fan the whole cake could be devoted to Nascar perhaps in the shape of a car with the car’s full colors.

No matter what you decide as the design, using a basic cake, fondant and frosting can give you a great cake.

Graduation Cakes
Tips and techniques for graduation cakes.