Bittersweet Graduation

On a side note, my nephew that I made this for found out he had cancer the day after his graduation. He has the same kind of cancer that Lance Armstrong had. The doctors are pretty positive that they have gotten it all, but he will still have to undergo chemo to make sure of that. He is a wonderfully sweet young man with so many dreams and hopes for the future, and I love him like one of my own. Please keep him and his family in your prayers. Thank you.


Here is a cake I did for my nephew's high school graduation.  I liked how the sugar pieces turned out, but I did NOT like having to put them on a buttercream cake.  The more I do all buttercream cakes, the more I do not like them.  I keep getting all of these little air bubbles in my current recipe, so the only thing I know to do is try yet another recipe.  I guess my only option right now is to do Italian meringue, but that requires me to refrigerate all of my cakes and I don't have an extra refrigerator to put them in.  I have tried going back to my all shortening based one, but the new shortenings are so heavy and they cause a lot of blow outs and sagging in the icing.  I just have to keep my chin up and charge away I guess.  When one door closes, another one opens.

The graduation cap is foam covered in fondant.  The tassel, jersey, emblem, and fishing lures are all fondant as well.  I had a super fun time making the fishing lures!  I think they would be great for a Father's Day cake, man's birthday, or groom's cake.  The cake itself is white cake with buttercream icing and the old style scrolls I learned so long ago and love.

Thanks for looking!