I posted earlier but its gone... let me try again!

I have been racking my brain trying to come up with a plan for a Graduation cake due this week.

The cake needs to feed 40 or so, and my initial plan was to bake up a 9x13.
The girl is graduating from high school and going on to East Carolina University (the mascots are the pirates, colors purple and yellow).

I want to do a graduation cap <probably using a 6" round> then make a gumpaste diploma. from there i think everything else should be pirate themed in some way. I was thinking of doing a sword, maybe a pirate flag, etc.

My problem is i dont want it to look like a borring sheet cake! Do you have any ideas on what I could do? (the only thing is i dont want to make it look like a book, i have done soooooooo many of those lately... im ready for something else! lol)

TIA

What about doing it like a tiered cake. You can use a 6 inch cake and halve of a ball cake to make the cap as the top tier and put the diploma next to it. Then decorate the bottom tier with a pirate theme. Search pirate in the gallaries and I'm sure you'll find lots of ideas.

How about a treasure map?

What about a treasure chest and the graduation cap and diploma is the treasure coming out of the chest with jewels and items colored with the colors of the college.

What about a RKT pirate ship flying the jolly roger in the school colors sailing across the sheet cake toward a golden X marking East Carolina University. You could put the ship on one corner with the X in the diagonal corner and a dotted line like a treasure map in between the two points.