GRADUATION CAKE

This page is all about sharing cake decorating ideas for free.

I hope to give you everything you need to design and make a wonderful cake.

I hope to give you amazing cake ideas and help you make the cakes.

I also have a great range of ideas on graduation cupcakes specially to give all your guests a treat!

Simple To Do Cake Ideas

Chocolate Cake Ideas

Visitors Graduation Cake Ideas

Super Easy Graduation Cakes

You Are A Star – Graduation Cake

By Jane Andrew

I made this cake for a little girl I know. It was her kindergarten graduation and I thought the cupcakes would be a nice favor for the guests to take home with them.

Ingredients/Tools:

Sponge cake (any size), cupcakes (desired amount), jam, ready-to-roll fondant icing, edible pink stars, yellow food coloring, pink sprinkles, star cutter, ready-made butter-cream icing, yellow edible pen, yellow icing.

Method:

I just used a classic sponge cake recipe and made plenty of batter so that there was enough to half-fill the cupcake cases too.

I added jam to the middle of the main cake and the cupcakes too for a nice surprise to bite into.

The main cake is covered in fondant icing while the cupcakes are covered in yellow tinted butter-cream icing.

I used a star shaped cutter to cut out the star shapes from fondant icing. I then brushed them lightly with water and covered them with some pink sprinkles.

The writing was really easy as I used a yellow edible pen to start with and then to make it look bolder I adding some yellow piped icing on top. If you don’t have a piping bag then a food bag with a tiny hole cut in the corner would do fine.

The other tiny pink stars on the main cake were ones I found in my local shop.

I hope this cake helped Lucy feel like the little star she is!

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Congrats Graduation Cake

By Jane Andrew

This is a very simple and graduation cake and was amazingly easy to decorate.

Ingredients/Tools:

Sponge cake (any size), jam, ready-to-roll fondant icing (enough to roll out and cover your cake), edible silver balls, yellow edible pen, edible flowers, thin pink ribbon and thick silver ribbon.

Method:

The cake was a straightforward classic sponge cake recipe with jam and butter-cream icing in the middle. I covered the entire cake in jam – this made it sticky so the fondant icing would adhere to it.

Next I covered it in ready-to-roll fondant icing. I rolled it out using plenty of icing sugar and a rolling pin. Trick is to make sure your rolling surface and pin are well covered in icing sugar to prevent any sticking. I then draped the icing over the rolling pin and moved it on top of the cake and then tripped any off the bottom with a sharp knife.

For the writing, I wrote the message on the cake with an edible pen in yellow. I then pressed edible silver balls into the yellow writing – they stuck into the fondant icing very well.

I also bought some little colorful edible flowers from my local supermarket which were secured in place with a tiny blob of white icing.

Final touches involved adding the wafer stick (to look like a scroll) with a little pink ribbon. And some nice silver ribbon around the side of the cake which was secured with a pin.

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After Eights Graduation Cake

By Jane Andrew

This is a simple elegant graduation cake that would suit anyone and is, again, extremely easy to make

Ingredients/Tools:

Sponge cake (any size), jam, ready-to-roll fondant icing, edible silver balls, chocolate after eight sweets, red icing for piping the year, thin red ribbon, thick silver ribbon.

Method:

I used a traditional chocolate cake recipe to make this cake, sliced it through the middle and added some vanilla flavored butter-cream icing.
I then covered the entire cake in the butter-cream – this helps the fondant icing adhere to it.

Next I covered it in ready-to-roll fondant icing. I rolled it out using plenty of icing sugar and a rolling pin. Trick is to make sure your rolling surface and pin are well covered in icing sugar to prevent any sticking.

I then draped the icing over the rolling pin and moved it on top of the cake and then trimmed any spare from the bottom with a sharp knife.

I made a piping bag out of a plastic food bag and just cut off a tiny edge at the coroner. I then filled the bag with the red icing. The red icing was just made from icing sugar, a tiny drop of water and some red food coloring. Mix it and make sure it is soft enough to pipe but firm enough to retain shape. Then simply pipe the year onto the chocolates. Great thing is that if you make a mistake then just eat it and try again on another one.

Now just get some edible silver balls and press them into the fondant icing at random intervals.

Final touches involved adding the wafer stick (to look like a scroll) with a little red ribbon and some nice silver ribbon around the side of the cake which was secured with a pin.

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100 and 1000’s Graduation Cake

By Jane Andrew

This was another kindergarten graduation cake made for – you guessed it - little Jen.

Ingredients/Tools:

Sponge cake, fondant icing, butter cream icing, yellow food coloring, blue edible pen, edible paper, 100 and 1000’s and piping bag.

Method:

I actually made the cake with a shop bought mixture this time and just doctored it by adding 2 mashed bananas and ¾ cup of sour cream as Jen just LOVES bananas. I then sliced the cake through the middle and added a layer of hazelnut chocolate spread.

To decorate it I simply rolled out some fondant icing using plenty of icing sugar to prevent any sticking and placed it over the cake.

I then used a blue edible pen to write the message on the cake. This really is so easy if you are not confident about writing with a piping bag.

To make the star for this cake I cut out a star shape with some edible paper, brushed it lightly with water and then laid it on the cake and quickly sprinkled it with 100 and 1000’s. The little sprinkles all stuck to the paper and were easily brushed off the rest of the cake.

I finished off making a butter-cream icing and adding a tiny amount of yellow food coloring to it and spooning the icing into a piping bag. It is so easy to then pipe with pattern around the edges. If you want to try it, just practice on some parchment paper first.

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Chocolate Drop Graduation Cake

By Jane Andrew

Jim just loved this yummy chocolate graduation cake!

Ingredients/Tools:

A lovely moist chocolate sponge cake was hiding under the butter-cream. I used this recipe.

Method:

Again, it was covered with butter-cream icing with a tint of yellow added – I think colors like this look more yummy than say blue, green, purple etc.

Then as you can see, chocolate drops were used to spell out the name.

The scroll was added to highlight the graduation occasion. This was soooooo simple. I just rolled out some fondant icing, cut a rectangle shape and rolled it up and secured it with the ribbon.

Finishing touches to this cake included a sprinkling of silver edible balls and a thick yellow ribbon attached to the sides with a pin.

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Chocolate Graduation Cakes

Chocolate Graduation Cake 1

By Jane Andrew

It’s chocolate through and through here for this cake – chocolate cakes sandwiched with chocolate butter cream icing, then smothered with even more chocolate butter cream icing.

To decorate, I grated some milk and white chocolate and pressed it around the sides of the cakes.

I also piped some of the butter cream icing around the top using a piping bag and nozzle.

The final touch to add the graduation element was a banner which was made with plain old paper and felt tip pens and inserted into the cake using two straws.

Here is the recipe I used for the most delicious light and fluffy chocolate sponge cakes:

Ingredients

• 170 g self-raising flour
• 170 g soft butter
• 170 g light brown sugar
• 3 medium eggs
• 1 heaped tablespoon Cocoa powder
• 1 heaped teaspoon baking powder
• 10 inch cake time and 7 inch cake tin

Method

1) The butter for the sponge must be so take it out the fridge an hour before. If this is not possible then break it up with a fork and beat it for a minute.

2) Turn the oven on, setting it to 170 C, 325 F or gas mark 3.

3) Grease both of the baking trays with butter then cut out 2 circles of grease proof paper and line the base of both baking trays.

4) Sieve the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder into a large bowl.

5) Add the butter, sugar and eggs to the flour mixture and mix well using a fork for about 3 minutes.

6) Cook in the center of a pre-heated oven for 30 minutes. Don't open the oven door until the 30 minutes are up or the sponge will sink in the middle!
Test if the sponge is cooked sticking a sharp knife in the middle. If it comes out clean then it's ready.

7) Once removed from the oven, wait a couple of minutes before turning them out of the tins and onto a wire rack and finally remove the grease proof paper.

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Chocolate Graduation Cake 2

By Jane Andrew

This graduation cake was made using a 10 inch cake tin for the large chocolate cake on the bottom, then an 7 inch cake tin for the chocolate cake on the top.

I have to confess the graduation cap base was actually a bought chocolate pudding that you make by putting it in the microwave. The size and shape of the rounded tub it was in was perfect so I thought, why not! Unfortunately I mixed up a separate batch of chocolate icing to cover the cap and as you can see it is not quite the same color. The top part of the cap is also a bit of a cheat as it was a piece of cardboard.

The whole cake was covered in chocolate butter cream icing (including the cardboard cap). The chocolate fingers stuck easily to the squidgy icing. As you can see I then just used some orange smarties and ribbon and some chocolate drops to finish off the decorations.

Here is the recipe of the chocolate butter cream icing that I used:

Ingredients

• 700g dark chocolate, at least 70% cocoa
• 900g unsalted butter
• 2 pinch salt
• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1000g icing sugar
• 4 eggs

Method

1. Melt the dark chocolate and leave to cool.

2. Place the vanilla, butter and salt in a bowl. Beat with a mixer for about 4 minutes. Add the icing sugar a little at a time while still beating. Mix thoroughly and continue to beat for another 4 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, and beat for another 5 minutes. Finally add the melted chocolate and beat for 4 minutes.

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By Jane Andrew

For this cake I used a 10 inch cake tin and a chocolate sponge cake recipe. Once cooked the chocolate cake was sliced through the middle and then sandwiched together with white butter icing and also a layer of jam - delicious.

To decorate I just smoothed on some melted milk chocolate and stuck some alternate colored smarties around the bottom.

I used a yellow gel tube for the writing which to my surprise was amazingly easy.

Now the graduation cap was just a marshmallow, a white square of paper and a few strips of thin ribbon all secured together with a white headed pin going through the ribbon, square, marshmallow and cake.

The scroll was also just a piece of while paper rolled up and secured with the same thin yellow ribbon as used on the graduation cap.

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Chocolate Graduation Cake 4

By Jane Andrew

Now the base for this cake is the same cake as I used for chocolate graduation cake 3. However instead of using smarties to decorate I bought these little pink star sprinkles from the supermarket.

I also purchased a pack of ready to roll fondant icing from the supermarket and just used a rolling pin to roll it out (I used some icing sugar to prevent it from sticking to the rolling pin). I also used a sharp knife dipped in the icing sugar to cut nice sharp lines for the rectangular piece of fondant/scroll.

As long as you don’t have a gooey topping on your cake it is very easy to roll up the ends of the fondant like a scroll and place it on top of your cake.

I used an edible pen to write “Happy Graduation Ellie” on the scroll. NB. This is best done before adding the scroll to the cake.

I wrapped a pink fluffy ribbon thing around the base – just because the graduate is especially girly. This was only possible because the cake is covered in hard milk chocolate. If it was butter cream then the fluff would obviously stick everywhere.

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Chocolate Graduation Cake 5

By Jane Andrew

I made a 10 inch and 7 inch chocolate sponge cake here. Each of them were sliced through the middle and a layer of butter cream icing and jam added.
The topping was made with chocolate drinking powder, icing sugar and a little water. Tip – if you dip you knife in a cup of boiling water it will help to spread the icing really smoothly.

Next I bought some ready to roll fondant icing. I used some little star shaped cookie cutters to cut out 5 star shapes – one for each letter of the graduates name. If you look closely you’ll see I have written each letter of the graduates name in the stars using a blue edible pen.

The fondant cap on top was really easy – just the fondant icing rolled out and I traced the outline of the cap with a toothpick until I was happy, then cut the lines with my knife and flipped it over to the other side and put it on top of the cake. The graduation cap tassels were ribbon secured with a small pin.

You will see I have also added some red smarties and a gold ribbon just to add some more color to this cake.

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Chocolate Graduation Cake 6

By Jane Andrew

Again the same 10 inch and 7 inch chocolate cakes were used here with some chocolate butter cream smothered all over them. This provided a good base for all the goodies to stick to.

I rolled out fondant icing and cut it into banner type shapes and using a red edible pen I wrote “Congratulation Katie” and “Sweet Success”.

Next I just added lots of different brightly colored sweets consisting of marshmallows, smarties, jelly tots, rainbow drops, milk chocolate buttons with sprinkles and white chocolate buttons.

The graduation cap is a marshmallow with a square of paper and thin ribbon for the tassel secured in place with a pin.

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Corey's Graduation Cake

by Angie Mitchell
(Pinetops, NC, USA)

I used yellow cake mix and then iced with homemade butter cream icing. The graduation cap is made of a 6" yellow cake that was cut at a slant after it cooled, it was then iced with butter cream icing.

I cut a 6" square cake board to make the top of the cap. A thin layer of icing was placed on it. I used a #6 tip to ice a border around the cap top and bottom of the cap. I attached the tassel(I found a key chain which I broke down to make it work on the cake). I also placed dowel rods under the cap to ensure it didn't sink down into the cake.

My son loved his cake and so did all the guests.

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2008 College Graduation Cake

2008 College Graduation Cake

by Kenny Morris
(Pinellas park fl)

Rolled fondant and gum paste is what we used to make the decorations for the top of cap. Under fondant we used cereal rice krispies for cake we used basic white cake 3 layers with a cream cheese frosting between layers. For the cap cake it was a basic cake recipe we made adding cocoa powder to turn it into a chocolate cake. Frosting was a butter cream in between 2 layers of the chocolate cake, this took about 8 hours from start to finish but the results were worth the effort.

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Congratulations Graduation Cake

Graduation Cake Congratulations

by Harriet Person
(Hickory, NC)

Simple white cake with butter cream frosting. Using colors from high school and college. Sparkles just added to the fun...for my nephew's graduation. :) I will be making more next week for my niece's graduation.

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2009 Graduation Cake

2009 Graduation Cake

by Angie Mitchell
(Pinetops, NC, USA)

A moist yellow sponge cake is iced using homemade butter-cream icing.

White butter-cream icing covered the cake. Finishing touches were made with the addition of a graduate figure, graduate cap, a diploma and black graduate cap candy sprinkles.

This cake won one of our prizes!!

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Love and Pride Graduation Cake

Love and Pride

by Linda Page
(Pasadena, Texas)

A moist yellow sponge cake is iced using homemade butter-cream icing.

The cakes and icing were store bought mixes baked in heart shaped pans. I used store bought decorations displayed as symbolic of the graduation ceremony with love and pride. We had the cake pans and stairs from a wedding cake we had made a couple of month before.

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More Cake Ideas

The caps on the following cake are made out of craft foam. Another of the cake ideas is to add them later to your scrapbook.

You could also pipe a graduation cap onto your cake using a graduation cap pattern.

Decorate the entire cake with a plastic graduation cap (from Ebay) to the top of your cake with a butter cream tassel, a butter cream transfer of the school emblem and a fondant diploma. Just like this example:

The simplest cake ever – a chocolate cake covered in chocolate icing. Then roll out some ready to roll fondant icing and cut out the shape of a graduation hat and then roll a small rectangle of it up to make the scroll. Add the tassel and a ribbon around the scroll in whatever color of icing you want. Then of course write a message on it. Just like this lovely picture below:

Here is another simple yet lovely design. It just looks like fondant icing with black coloring added then rolled thinly and cut into a square. Then a butter-cream message and tassel added.

How about a set of school lockers made by setting loaf pan size cakes side by side and decorating them. You could make different flavors of cakes.

Make a sheet cake, then cut a 4 inch strip off one short end. This will leave you with the square part of the diploma. Place a paper cup on the bottom left and top right corner to carve around to the get the curved edge of the diploma. Next cut two pieces out if the strip and do the same paper cup thing to one corner of each of them for the "tails" of the paper scroll. Find logos for each school online, print them out, then used the pin-prick method to transfer all images and writing to cake, then followed the outline with icing!

Cake with a Quote or Motto is a nice, simple idea. Bake a large sheet cake, cover it with some delicious butter-cream icing and then add a thought provoking graduation quote to it - you'll find lots of graduation quotes to choose from here. If you are skilled with a piping bag then go for it, or you can get little tubes of gel in supermarkets that are really easy to write with. You can find plastic pen in local cookery stores which you can fill with icing and just squeeze and use like an ordinary pen.

You could even use an edible pen – better to cover your cake in ready-to-roll fondant icing for this option though.

Patterns for Graduation Cakes

Click on this link to get a cake pattern of a graduation cap and scroll.

Also there is a full set of instructions on how to transpose the pattern onto the cake.

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Graduation Cake Pans

Save money and buy your cake pans on E-Bay.

Cake Sprays and Shimmers

Cake Shimmer Dust:

To use this just apply a little water with a wet brush to your fondant covered cake and then sprinkle some shimmer dust. You could make a bit of a design with the wet brush and just use a hairdryer to blow the excess off.

Another idea is to cut out some fondant shapes - stars really suit the graduation theme. Wet and sprinkle the stars in different colors and then attach them to the top of your cake with a mixture of confectionaries sugar and water.

Food Color Spray:

This is another great product and here are some ideas on how to use it:

1. Spray the whole cake with a fine spray of the colors available - and believe me there are lots! Your could even make a rainbow cake, just like the picture below.
2. Place a doily on top of the cake, then spray and remove doily to reveal a lovely intricate pattern.
3. Make a stencil of the graduation cap and/or scroll or a star shape, place it on top of the cake, spray and remove.
4. You could also cut out fondant shapes and spray them, then apply to the cake.

Covering Options for Graduation Cakes

Butter Cream Icing

Useful Info:

• This has a sweet buttery flavor - I reckon it looks and tastes the best out of all the icing types.
• You can easily change the consistency by adding more water to make it thinner or more sugar to stiffen it.
• It is best used for icing cakes smooth and writing and piping.
• Note color tends to deepen within 2 to 3 hours.
• An iced cake can be stored at room temperature for 2-3 days.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
• 1/2 cup softened butter
• 4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract.

Method:

1. Cream shortening and butter and add vanilla.
2. Gradually add sugar beating well on medium speed.
3. Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy.
4. Cover bowl with a damp cloth until ready to use.
5. Refrigerated in an airtight container and use within 2 week.
   

Of course you could always a buy ready made version at your supermarket or even Ebay.

Rolled Fondant

Useful Info:

• Covers cakes with a nice smooth satiny finish.
• It has a dough-like consistency that you roll out before applying to cake. It also good for molding decorations.
• It is possible to knead in different colors.
• Cakes should be covered in butter cream icing prior to the fondant being added.
• Do not refrigerate or freeze. When ready to use, knead again until soft.
• An iced cake can be stored at room temperature for 3 to 4 days.

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon + 2 teaspoons unflavored gelatin
• 1/4 cup cold water
• 1/2 cup Glucose
• 2 tablespoons solid vegetable shortening
• 1 tablespoon Glycerine
• 8 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
• Icing color and flavoring, as desired.

Method:

1. Mix the gelatin and cold water and let it stand until thick.
2. Place gelatin mixture in a glass bowl on top of pan of boiling water and heat until dissolved.
3. Add glucose, then shortening and remove from heat just before completely melted.
4. Add glycerin, flavoring and color and cool.
5. Place 4 cups confectioners' sugar in a bowl and make a well.
6. Pour the lukewarm gelatin mixture into the well and stir with a wooden spoon.
7. Add rest of the sugar gradually - probably need to knead it in at the end.

Tips on how to cover a cake with fondant making it perfectly smooth, without wrinkles or air bubbles?

• If fondant is sticky, knead in a little confectioners' sugar.
• Lightly dust your smooth work surface and your rolling pin with confectioners' sugar to prevent sticking.
• Roll out fondant sized to your cake adding more confectioners' sugar as needed.
• Gently lift fondant over rolling pin and position on cake.
• If there is an air-bubble then prick it with a needle and smooth down.

Rolled Marshmallow Fondant

Useful Info:

• Wrap it in Saran Wrap and then put it in a Ziploc bag - it will last for months.
• Add glycerin to keep it moist and stop it from tearing.
• It's best to allow Marshmallow Fondant to sit, double wrapped, overnight.

Ingredients:

• 1 packet white mini marshmallows
• 2-5 tablespoons water
• 8 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening.

Method:

1. Place marshmallows and 2 tablespoons of water in a microwave and heat for 2 ½ mins stirring occasionally.
2. Place 3/4 of the confectioners' sugar on top of the melted marshmallow mix.
3. Use glycerin or vegetable shortening to grease hands and counter.
4. Turn marshmallow mixture onto counter.
5. Knead it, adding additional confectioners' sugar and re-greasing hands and counter when the marshmallow fondant sticks.
6. If the marshmallow fondant is tearing easily then add a tiny bit of water.
7. Continue kneading until marshmallow fondant forms a firm, smooth elastic ball that will stretch without tearing.

Easy Chocolate Frosting

Ingredients:

• Brown chocolate topping and filling, 115g milk chocolate and 2 tablespoons of soured cream.
• White chocolate topping and filling, 115g white chocolate and 2 tablespoons of soured cream.

Method:

1. Break the chocolate up into small pieces and put in a bowl.
2. Pour in the soured cream.
3. Heat a saucepan of water over a low heat.
4. Stand the bowl over the saucepan of water.
5. Stir the chocolate and cream together until the chocolate has melted.

Deluxe Creamy Fudge Frosting

Ingredients:

• 50g of margarine
• 200g of frosting sugar
• 3 tablespoons of milk.

Method:

1. Place the ingredients in a bowl and place the bowl over a saucepan of water and stir until melted.
2. Leave until cold and then beat until thick and glossy.

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Writing on Your Graduation Cakes

How to make the icing for piping

Just follow the butter cream recipe above and add a little extra water to make it a thinner consistency - soft enough to pipe but firm enough to maintain shape. Add any food coloring desired.

How to Make Your Own Piping Bag

You can buy piping bags with various sized nozzles or you could follow these steps to make your own:

1. Cut out a piece of grease proof paper 25 cm square and fold it in half diagonally.
2. Fold one corner of the folded triangle into the middle point to make a cone.
3. Fold the other corner of the triangle around it so that the three points meet.
4. Then tuck the points inside the cone to hold it firmly in place. Snip the tip off the cone.

Now simply fill the bag with icing. Fold the top of the bag down over the icing and press gently to squeeze out a thin ribbon through the tip of the cone.

Tips On Writing With a Piping Bag!

• Fill the icing bag half full, hold the icing bag at a 45° angle and lightly touch tip to surface and squeeze steadily.
• Glide tip along surface. Remember to keep your wrist straight, moving your entire forearm as a single unit.
• Stop squeezing and pull tip away.
• After you begin to master it lift the tip up slightly as you write. You'll find you have more control if you let the icing drop to the surface as you write.
• It takes a lot of practice. Try using your whole arm and not just bend your wrist.

Writing With Gel Tubes

You can buy these from ebay. As you can probably guess from the title, they are little tubes of colored edible gel - you can get non-sparkling ones too - and all you do is hold them like a pen and gently squeeze while writing.

Edible Pens

are amazing - just like felt tip pens so you can write absolutely anything with ease - obviously only suitable for using on smooth toppings like fondant or royal icing.

Writing With Edible Silver Balls

A trick I have tried is writing a message on my fondant covered cake with an edible pen and then gently pressing silver edible balls on top of the writing. The balls stay put well and look really glitzy.

Writing With Chocolate Drops

I made a cake once with butter cream icing and added a message on top with chocolate drops. Needs to be quite a short one mind, something like "Jane 2014".

Writing With Candy Stars

You could use mini candy stars in exactly the same way as I used the chocolate drops. If you want to use them on a smooth fondant topping though then you'll need help to make them stick. To do this just mix a little confectioners' sugar mixed with a drop of water. Apply a tiny blob to the cake with a clean fine tipped paintbrush and pop a star on top.

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Filling Your Graduation Cakes

Now just to be clear, when I say filling, I mean when you cut your cake through the middle, remove the top half, spread a filling on the cake, then put the top back on.

Chocolate Filling

Makes: Approx 1 ½ cups full.

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 5 egg yolks
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup half & half
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 squares chocolate, finely chopped

Instructions:

1. Mix the flour, salt and sugar in a saucepan and blend in some of the cream.
2. Place on medium heat and stir continuously.
3. Add the rest of the cream and continue stirring for a couple of minutes.
4. Add the egg yolks into the sauce in pan.
5. Cook for a few minutes on low heat until thickened.
6. Remove from heat, add unsweetened chocolate along with the vanilla and leave to cool.

Strawberry Cream Filling

Makes: Approx 2 ½ cups full

Ingredients:

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 16oz of strawberries
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch

Instructions:

1. Cook strawberries, cream and corn starch in a saucepan over a medium heat, whisking constantly until thickened.
2. Remove from heat and chill before filling cupcakes or using as an icing on cupcakes.

Cream Cheeses Filling

Makes: Approx 1 ½ cups full.

Ingredients:

• 8oz cream cheese softened
• ½ cup confectioners' sugar
• ¼ cup milk

Instructions:

Combine cream cheese, sugar, and milk in a bowl and beat until well blended.

Raspberry Filling

Makes: Approx 2 cups full.

Ingredients:

• 16 oz raspberries
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 cup of water

Instructions:

1. Put raspberries in a bowl.
2. Combine water, sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice in a saucepan and heat while stirring constantly until mixture boils and thickens.
3. Cool completely.
4. Stir raspberries into cooled mixture and mix well.

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Sponge Cake Recipes for Graduation Cakes

Easiest Sponge Recipe for Graduation Cakes

This cake is very easy to make as all the ingredients are mixed together in the same bowl.

Tools:

• Wire rack for cooling the cake
• 2 circles of grease proof paper - 17.5cm (7 inches) across
• 2 X 17.5 cm (7 inch) sandwich cake tins
• Mixing bowl
• Pastry brush
• Wooden spoon
• Palette knife.

Ingredients:

• 115g of softened margarine (convert to cups)
• 2 large eggs
• 115g cater sugar
• 115g self-raising flour
• 2-3 drops of vanilla essence
• A pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder.

For a lemon cake, add the grated rind of a lemon and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice.
For an orange cake, add the grated rind of an orange and 1 tablespoon of orange juice.
For a chocolate cake, add 30g sieved cocoa powder to replace same amount of flour.

Instructions:

1) Set the oven to 170 degrees centigrade/325 degrees Fahrenheit/ gas mark 3. Put all the ingredients into a mixing bowl.
2) Mix all the ingredients together with the wooden spoon, then beat the mixture hard for about 2 mins.
3) The cake mixture should drop off the spoon easily. If it seems too stiff, stir in two teaspoons of water and beat it again.
4) Divide the mixture between two greased and lined cake tins and smooth it level. Bake the cakes for 30 minutes until firm.
5) Slide a knife around the edges of the tins to loosen them and turn them out on to a wire rack. Remove the wax paper.

Doctoring a Box Mix

Don't be ashamed of using a box mix as these are almost always preferred when compared to cakes made from scratch.

Just choose one from your local supermarket and you could always add another ingredient to it to make it unique.

Try adding one of the following:

• Chocolate cake - ¾ cup of unsweetened melted chocolate
• Peanut cake - ¾ cup peanut butter
• Banana cake - 2 ripe bananas mashed and ¾ cup sour cream
• Carrot cake - 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, 4 cups carrots freshly shredded and ½ cup nuts chopped.

Or how about these ideas. It would be easy enough to add ingredients to make the following cakes:

• Apple
• Chocolate mint
• Cinnamon with a cream cheese filling
• Coconut
• Coconut & pineapple
• Gingerbread
• Lemon
• Yellow with lemon filling
• Mocha
• Orange
• Pina Colada
• Pink Lemonade
• Strawberry or Raspberry
  

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Graduation Cutters

Best Graduation Themed Cutters

are obviously the best cutters for a graduation theme but stars are also appropriate too.

Colored Fondant Shapes

A great decorating idea would be to start with a white fondant covered cake and apply some colored fondant shapes on top of it.

To achieve this all you need to do is knead in a little food coloring of choice into some ready-to-roll fondant icing. Now roll out the fondant using some confectioners' sugar to stop it sticking. Also dip the cutter into confectioners' sugar to stop the fondant sticking to that to. Cut out your shapes and secure them on top of your cake using a mixture of confectioners' sugar and a drop of water - just to act like the glue.

Paint Your Fondant Shape

Just cut out your fondant shapes from white fondant and then use food coloring and a paint brush to apply the color to your fondant shapes. This gives a more intense looking color.

Use The Cutter to Imprint The Outline

You could just press the cutter into your cake. Now using edible silver balls, gently press them into the outline left by the cutters.

Other Uses for Graduation Cutters

Check out this tasty looking toasted sandwich:

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Share Your Graduation Cake

Once you have completed your own cake I do hope you come back and share your wonderful cake. Other visitors will be inspired by your cake photos and how you made it! Each year we have a prize fund of $100 so why not give yourself a chance of winning!!!

Your submission should consist of:

• a photo of the cake – try to make it a close up one – I use “Paint” (which I think exists on all computers under “Accessories”) and then the View and Zoom options to capture a close-up, however you might have a better option on your PC.



• a short write-up - on recipe details, how you decorated it and any other info like where the idea came from etc.

Each cake picture must be of a cake that you or a family member have made. The cake picture and your write up must be original and cannot be copied from another source.

The graduation cakes don't need to be perfect, sharing your creative ideas, stories and photos can be just as effective.

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