I'm heading to Oregon for a couple weeks and my mom asked me to make my brother's high school graduation cake while I'm there. I have a design in mind, but I need some help on a few things. She wants the cake to feed around 75 people. I'd like to do a two-tier cake with a half-ball cake on top, as the graduation cap. So here are my questions:
1. Would a 12" tier and a 10" tier with a half-ball cap look funny? What about a 12" and 8" with a half-ball size cap? I don't have any 9" pans and would prefer not to buy any if I don't have to, but I don't want it to look "off" either.
2. How do I make a tassel?
3. How do I make the flat part of the cap so that it doesn't break? If I roll out an 8" square of black fondant, about 1/4" thick and let it dry for several days, will it be strong enough, or will it break when I try to put it on the half-ball?
4. If I color chocolate butter cream to make black, will I run in to the "black teeth" issue? The party is just before the actual graduation ceremony. I would hate for all the graduates to have black teeth.
I think that's all for now.
I'm heading to Oregon for a couple weeks and my mom asked me to make my brother's high school graduation cake while I'm there. I have a design in mind, but I need some help on a few things. She wants the cake to feed around 75 people. I'd like to do a two-tier cake with a half-ball cake on top, as the graduation cap. So here are my questions:
1. Would a 12" tier and a 10" tier with a half-ball cap look funny? What about a 12" and 8" with a half-ball size cap? I don't have any 9" pans and would prefer not to buy any if I don't have to, but I don't want it to look "off" either.
2. How do I make a tassel?
3. How do I make the flat part of the cap so that it doesn't break? If I roll out an 8" square of black fondant, about 1/4" thick and let it dry for several days, will it be strong enough, or will it break when I try to put it on the half-ball?
4. If I color chocolate butter cream to make black, will I run in to the "black teeth" issue? The party is just before the actual graduation ceremony. I would hate for all the graduates to have black teeth.
I think that's all for now.
1. I think that would work fine, I've seen cakes w/ similar sizing before.
2. I will defer to someone who has actually done this lol.
3. You've got to use gumpaste, or at least a fondant/gumpaste mix. Fondant alone will not dry hard enough.
4. Yup, it will - at least a little. You still have to add a lot of black. It won't be as bad as if you were coloring white to black, but you'll still have that chance. Maybe try a trial batch? That way you will be able to tell if it will taste decent too, adding to much food coloring can flavor your frosting...
Good luck though 
I see your other questions were answered, but I make my graduation caps by taking a cardboard square, lightly smearing it with piping gel and covering it with fondant. I let it dry for a few days. I just made the cap part out of rice krispy treats instead of cake this time...it worked great. (I covered it with buttercream to smooth out first.) I like this technique as it allows me to make the cap up ahead of time.
Answer to your #3 question: Making the tassel: I put fondant through my clay gun with the "several holes" attachment. (The one that is used for larger hair?)
This last grad. cap needed to be black...I used dk. blue fondant, then sprayed it with black, with my air sprayer.
Good luck, I hope this helps!
Thanks for your help. I don't really like making cakes in a kitchen other than my own, especially when I have to take everything on the plane and hope that I don't forget anything. But I'm glad I get to do this for my little brother.
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