Shindigz has been around since 1926 would you believe! It has an amazing supply of graduation themed paper plates, cups, napkins, tablecloths, graduation table center pieces, graduation favors etc. etc. etc. You name it, it has it! Not only that, the prices are amazing. So save yourself some surfing time and check this wonderful party site out now.
Graduation Cake Decorations
Plus, there are lots of other graduation cake decorating ideas like using edible pens, plastic graduation toppers, edible photos, colored fondant cut outs using a graduation cap cookie cutter, candy confettii, food color spray etc.
Best Graduation Cake Supply Stores!
have a great array of cake supplies that you can just buy without the hassle of bidding. Their cake pans are fantastic value - why bother buying new when you'll probably only use it once.
Graduation cake pans will help make your cake look really unique and really fit the occasion. You could also use it to make a jelly. Help it to slip out easily by just dipping the pan in boiling water for a few seconds.
Can I Freeze My Graduation Cake?
You can freeze your cake. It should last up to three months in the freezer. To freeze the cake simply wrap it in a few layers of cling film or seal in a freezer bag. Cakes sometimes become a little soggy if allowed to defrost too quickly so for best results, leave it in its wrapping and allow it to defrost overnight in the fridge. The next day, remove from the fridge and take out of the wrapping to let it come up to room temperature for an hour or so before decorating it.
There are a few cake storage tips you need to consider in order to keep your cake fresh for as long as possible:
- Store the graduation cake in a covered box or container out of direct sunlight as the sunlight will alter icing colours.
- Heat and humidity can soften the buttercream and icing used so keep your decorated cake as cool as possible, and in a box or container if possible.
- Try not to use tinfoil or cling film to cover a decorated cake as this can sometimes stick to icing and damage any decorations you may have used.
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How Do I Know When My Cake is Cooked?
To check your cake is completely cooked, insert a very thin knife into the centre of the cake for a couple of seconds and then remove. If the knife comes out wet and sticky then the cake needs a few more minutes. If the blade comes out clean, then your graduation cake is ready.
Graduation Quotes
Perhaps you could write a short graduation quote on your cake using an edible pen. How about the following:
The tassel's worth the hasstle!
You are hard wired for genius.
There are no barriers in life, only challenges.
Success is a journey, not a destination.
The sky's the limit when your heart is in it.
Climb as high as you can dream.
Change your thoughts and you change your world.
"All that stands between the graduate and the top of the ladder is the ladder."
Graduation Poems
Graduation Poems are great for slipping into graduation speeches and also for putting inside your homemade graduation invitations. Here is just one of them:
'Hail to the graduate! Looking great and feeling fit! Oh, so proud and full of it! This day belongs to you.'
You don't have to be a professional cake maker in order to create amazing homemade graduation cakes. If you've got the motivation to create your own graduation cakes, we will provide you with all the inspiration and help you need.
Have a browse around the following links to uncover some great graduation cake designs and ideas:
The cake recipes, decorating ideas, designs and tips in our site are completely free. Please take a moment and contribute to the free resource by submitting your cake and cake ideas for other visitors to be inspired by. So if you bake a great graduation cake, or have tips to share, then click here to find out how to submit them to be showcased on this site. Proudly display your graduation cake, recipe, tips and decorating ideas. Tell other cake makers your secrets, and help give graduates a special day with a special graduation cake. You will automatically be entered into our next contest. This year the prize fund is increased to $300. There is a grand prize and runners up prizes.
We also have a free resource on graduation cupcakes. If you have made your own great cupcakes which you can share with other visitors please take a moment and submit them. You will have your own web page hosted on our site which friends and family can visit. You will be entered into our next competition. This year the prize fund is $100. There is a grand prize and runners up prizes.
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 greaseproof 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 farenheight/ 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.
~~~ ideas for making amazing graduation cakes ~~~
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
There is also a really good book called "The Cake Mix Doctor" book.
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.
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.
~~~ ideas for making amazing graduation cakes ~~~
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.
~~~ ideas for making amazing graduation cakes ~~~
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.
~~~ ideas for making amazing graduation cakes ~~~
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.
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:
Cut out a piece of greaseproof paper 25 cm square and fold it in half diagonally.
Fold one corner of the folded triangle into the middle point to make a cone.
Fold the other corner of the triangle around it so that the three points meet.
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.
Use The "Pin Prick" Method to Make a Writing Pattern
Type the wording you want to appear on your cake onto your computer.
Use the desire font and adjust it to the desired size.
Now print this off.
Using a pin, prick the letters every so often so that the back of the paper has a "Braille like" look.
Next, lie the paper on the cake bumpy side down and smooth it with your hand lightly pressing down.
When you remove the paper, you will have the pricks slightly indented into the cake giving you a pattern to follow.
The best part is that you can practice piping over and over on wax paper and then simply put the icing back into the piping bag ready for the next go.
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 thesefrom 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 2009".
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 topt.
Fancy Professional Writing
If you go to www.picturethatcake.com then they could print whatever message you want onto edible paper which can be applied to your cake. The edible paper can be used with most icings as long as they have no surface moisture, which could cause the colours to bleed. Sugar paste, fondant, royal icing and butter cream. If a cake covering that has a high moisture content (fresh cream) is desired, all is not lost. Put the image on a thin layer of sugar paste before applying to your cake.
are obviously the best cutters for a graduation theme but stars are also appropriate too.
~~~ ideas for making amazing graduation cakes ~~~
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 doloring 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.
~~~ ideas for making amazing graduation cakes ~~~
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.
~~~ ideas for making amazing graduation cakes ~~~
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.
Now use the following instructions to transpose the image onto your cake.
If you want to resize the image then there are a number of ways you can do this. One way is to right click on the image and select copy. Next, open up a new doc in your word processing tool - I use MS Word and right-click your mouse again and select "paste". This will paste the image onto your doc. Now click on the image and little squares will appear in the corners. Click you mouse on one of the squares and drag your mouse inwards to reduce the image or outwards to increase it. Now simply print.
Now for the steps to transpose the image to your cake:
Using a pin around the outline of the image every so often so that the back of the paper has a "Braille like" look.
Next, lie the paper on your cake bumpy side down and smooth it with your hand lightly pressing down.
When you remove the paper, you will have the pricks slightly indented into the cake giving you a pattern to follow.
Here is a short list of graduation cake accessories that can all be found on ebay:
graduation cake pics
graduation candles
cake stands.
A cheaper option for a cake stand is to just cover a cake board with fondant icing in the same or contrasting color to your cake and remember it could be decorated too with some fondant cutouts (see graduation cutters above) or with edible pens or butter-cream piping. The options to make your cake totally unique are endless.
Graduation cakes can be used in other ways. A piece of cake can form part of the graduation favors pack. Guests can enjoy a piece of cake at home and take the chance to relax and think back on the great time they had.
Arrange a photo of each guest which includes the graduate with the cake in the foreground. This great photo can be printed and sent on to the guests with their thank you card.
Graduation cakes can add to the celebrations. There is a special moment when graduation cakes are presented with the candles lit. Everyone gets the chance to come together to join in celebration. They can cheer the graduate and take photos. The graduate and their family may say a few words of congratulations and thank everyone for coming to the graduation party. Well decorated graduation cakes will make a great centrepiece which may be photographed by all the guests.
