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 cakes 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.