Graduation Day!

Well, as spring starts to seem more like summer, you know that it's time for graduations.  Nick, who worked in my husband's lab asked me to bake a cake for him and a few of his friends that were graduating at the same time as him.  He sent me information about each person and their respective majors, so right off the bat I knew I wanted to do something to make it a personalized treat for each graduate.  

Nick asked that I stick with pretty simple/basic flavors.  I decided to go with the two standbys - chocolate and vanilla.  The square tier of the cake was made of chocolate cake, and the top tier was vanilla cake.  I've found that when you have those two, there really is something for everyone.

Since a lot of people like to write their name on the top of their graduation caps so their families can find them, I decided to do the same with the cake.  I made a graduation cap and wrote each person's name on one corner.  Then, I decorated each side with something to represent their major.

The top of the cap was just gum paste that I cut and let dry for
about 24 hours.  I'm not sure what caused the ripple effect, but
I really liked it.  I thought it made it look like fabric.

Three of the students were graduating from the University of Florida (orange and blue), and one girl was graduating from Santa Fe College (blue and white).  Of course nobody could be left out, so I made two tassels - one for each school.

The tassels were actually not as hard to make as I thought they would be.  I died fondant the different colors and then rolled them each out into thick sheets.  I just happened to have my spaghetti maker handy, so I rolled the sheets through that to make the strips.  Then, I just bunched the strips together, bound them by wrapping another piece of fondant around the top, and placed it on the cake.  

 

Nick was a Biochemistry major and a Materials Science Engineering
Minor.  So, he got a DNA helix.

Kayla got her Associate's degree in Cardiovascular Technology,
so she got an EKG reading

Cassie was a History major, and she had me pretty stumped.
She ended up getting an ancient scroll telling the world's history.

Shane was a Healthcare Technology major, so he got a Caduceus
(a commonly used healthcare symbol) and a stethoscope.