My son just graduated college with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre, and I am wanting to make him a graduation cake for his party. I know you are all so creative and I was looking for some ideas on decorations for his cake. I thought of the comic-tragedy masks, but have no idea how to go about making them. Any and all ideas are greatly appreciated. TIA
Lori

Those masks are the first thing that comes to everyone's mind.

Tell me how many people you are going to serve, and I will come up with something. I have an idea already, but I want to make sure it's doable with the size you need.

Theresa

playingwithsugar....I will probably need a cake to feed approx 35 people.

I just did a cake for a theater grad. It was a stage and marquee. It is posted in my pics. Maybe you could use some of the elements.

What about a round cake with the comedy/tragedy masks on top, then fondant curtains on the cake. You could have them draping down all around the cake, and have them pulled back on one side. Decorate the part that's open like a stage, with little footlights at the base of the cake, and a fondant stage and backdrop on the side of the cake. If you're artsy you could cover the whole cake with white fondant first, then do the curtains in red and paint the stage floor and backdrop on the white fondant that's exposed. I hope that makes sense...I can see it so clearly in my own head

I was thinking the same as costumeczar, but I was going to go with 3-8" square cakes, stacked and punch-filled, covered w/fondant on 3 sides and top, front to be draped into side curtains, valance, and traveler.

Or the outside of a theater, with a marquee with the the words Now Playing and your son's name on it, doors, and an EI poster on the side with a pic of your son, cap and gown, diploma in hand.

Theresa

Thank you KyleKaitlyn, Costume Czar and Playingwithsugar for your quick responses. I knew there were clever people here on CC. I like the masks, and suggestion on what to use for a mold? And I like the idea of a stage and marquee any ideas on how to make that stand up? Gumpaste? Wouldn't fondant be too soft? Do you think that a stage with marquee on top and smaller masks on stage would look ok? As you can tell, I have difficulty in making decisions Thanks for all your help, you guys rock!

The easiest way to make the stage as described by KyleKaitlyn is to cut a cake board to the needed size/sizes and cover it/them with fondant (use piping gel to adhere).

Theresa

I made the both the marqueee back of the stage out of gumpaste. The Curtain was fondant (rolled thick). That gave me the most difficulty. It kept wanting to pull and tear or fall off. Luckily I had enough time to let it dry horizontally. I secured wooden dowels to the back of the stage and marquee with gumpaste and put them through to the bottom of the cake. They held up surprisingly well. HTH

I didn't think of using a cake board for the back. (Duh!) I also wanted to add academic elements, so there were books, a globe, and the graduate in appropriately colored cap, gown, tassle, etc.

What about a large Oscar statuette? The base could be cake covered in fondant and painted to look like wood. Then the Oscar could be RKT covered in either fondant or modeling chocolate and painted with gold lustre dust. You could even put a RI plaque on the front of the 'wood base' that had his name, degree, school, etc.

what specialty of Theatre was his BFA in -- Acting? Directing? Lighting? Sets? Costumes? Make-up? Sound?

Could custom tailor the cake to his specialty.

I have a theater grad cake due next week too!! Ugh.. i've been stressing about it for weeks.

Maybe you could find a chocolate mold (a large one) for a theater mask. I just saw a cake on flickr that had one. Or a movie reel.. or hmmmm..

I have actually been googling a lot of high school music (lol..) cakes because a lot of them center around a stage w/ draping curtains. It's a good place to start to look for ideas.

For my cake.. they want three tiers.. so I have to work around that.

I was going to do drapes/curtains on one tier and in the middle of that tier have the three spotlight circles w/ 2009 in the middle (it's a HS graduate). Besides that, i'm CLUELESS. I don't know what to do for the other tiers and have it still be cohesive

Good luck and i'll keep spitting out ideas to you as I think of them

Get some styrofoam eggs and trace the pattern from one of these onto them. Then press in the styrofoam where needed to make the form.
Then lay your gumpaste over it and cut out the pattern. Personally, I like the first one - it's different.

http://www.shakespearesden.com/italian-comedy-tragedy-masks.html
Then paint as desired.

Please take step-by-step photos of whatever method you make them and post them for us.

Theresa

For the masks, what about putting gumpaste over the face of a doll for the general shape, then adding the details in subsequent layers?

Thanks so much to all of you, and playing with sugar thanks for the pictures of the masks, that gives me a place to start. Will post pic when its done. Thanks again. Oh, and his major is in acting.

When you say theatre, red comes to my mind. How about a stage with red curtains?

i did a stack of books with a mask and graduation cap, it's in my pics...for the mask i just bought a cheap plastic mask from micheal's, dusted it w/ ps and covered it w/ gumpaste. good luck!

awww thanks alexandrabill, that's very sweet!

You could make a sheet to look like a stage, with stage lights wood planks for the floor etc, and the mask on the stage. make your curtains out of something that dries hard like pastillage ( or gumpaste if not humid climate) and stand them up wioth dowel or skewers.