Share Your Graduation Cake Decorating Ideas

Past Graduation Cake Competition Winners

Share your cake and automatically enter the next cake competition.

Graduation Cake Submissions by Our Lovely Readers

Some Chocolate Graduation Cake Ideas

Some Other Very Easy Graduation Cakes Ideas

Share Your Graduation Cake

We (myself and all the visitors) would love you to have a go and submit your own graduation cakes not only just for the next competition grand prize but also to share your tips and ideas. If you would like to share your cakes with us send us your cake photos, recipes and tips and also the story behind them, perhaps the graduate just loves the cake flavor you used. We will create your own web page and photo gallery hosted on our site.

The only rule is that they have to be homemade graduation cakes or cupcakes and not shop bought.

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.
• 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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July 2010 Graduation Cake Prize Winner

NCSU Roommates Grad Cake

by Sherry Young
(New Bern, NC)

This is the cake I made for my daughter and her roommates graduating from college. I was inspired while browsing in the scrapbook section.

Tools:
Cake Mix, Fondant, Icing, Food coloring, Scrapbooking supplies, photos, cookie cutters, fabric, clear plastic, clip art, lollypop sticks, popsicle sticks, hot glue

Instuctions:
The scrapbook gown is like a little dolls clothing, so I formed a body (with head shape-no arms) with wire. I used a photo shop program to size their heads and hot glued them to the wire. The black diploma was originally red, so I painted it black and made a school logo. After attaching mortar board and diplomas to the Paper Dolls, I hot glued popsicles sticks to the bottom of wire body to create length to stick in the cake. The Congratulations sign was made with a clip art program and glued to lollypop sticks and added little curly ribbon. The platter is very sturdy cardboard covered with fabric of their university logo, then covered in medium weight clear plastic. The (2) bottom square cake was made with a 12 inch pan, with frosting between layers. The (2) round top cake was made with a Wilton pan, with frosting between layers. I used cookie cutters and gel food coloring to make the letters, numbers and stars. First I covered the bottom cake with frosting and white fondant then placed it on the platter, then covered the round ones with frosting and white fondant and placed it on top of bottom cakes in the back corner. I rolled the fondant (black & red) and placed it between cake and platter, and top and bottom tiers. The dots are tiny fondant balls pressed and applied to cake. When working with colored fondant (shapes, letters etc.) and applying to white fondant, I learned to use water very, very sparingly as it bleeds easily.

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July 2009 Graduation Cake Prize Winner

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.

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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 buttercream icing, then smothered with even more chocolate buttercream 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 buttercream 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 greaseproof 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 centre 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 buttercream icing (including the cardboard cap). The Cadburys 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 buttercream 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 vamilla, 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 botton.

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

Now the graduation cap was just a mashmallow, a white square of paper and a few strips of thin ribbon all seceured together with a white headed pin going through the ribbon, square, mashmallow 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 buttercream then the fluff would obviouly 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 buttercream 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 closedly you’ll see I have written each letter of the graduates name in the stars uning 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 otherside 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 buttercream smothred 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 mashmallows, smarties, jelly tots, rainbow drops, milk chocolate buttons with sprinkles and white chocolate buttons.

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

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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 favour 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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Girly Graduation Cake

By Jane Andrew

This is a very simple and girly 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 colourful 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 a boy and 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 flavoured 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, buttercream 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 the recipe on the main cakes page of this site.

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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Where to Buy Your Graduation Cake Supplies

If you are inspired now and ready to start baking and decorating a graduation cake then you'll find loads of graduation cake making goodies on ebay, all at great prices.

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