Graduation Cake With Geometric Pattern And Gumpaste Roses

My niece didn't want a "graduation-y" cake for her party. She requested music, roses and black/red school colors. I took inspiration from the monogram on her graduation announcement and added white-on-white lettering around the board giving a nod to the college she'll be attending in the fall.

I was thrilled to find a template in Jessica Harris' Craftsy store that was nearly identical to the geometric design I had sketched. Even using the waxed paper transfer method, it took forever to attach all of the curved diamonds and dots.

Comments (14)

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Hello scubabaker! Love LOVE this cake!  Stunning design and colors.  I have a question.  Did you use cake lace with a music note mould to create the "sheet music"?  I'm incorporating this into a cake I'm making for September and was curious.  

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Thanks, LynneCakes. I did use a lace mat for the music staff and notes. I used Chef Alan's mat from GSA, but there are other similar mats available. 

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Ok.  I've never used cake lace before so if I wanted to "squish" the ends, is that doable? This will be the middle tier of a 3 tier cake.  The bottom will have vines of blueberries and red currants and the top will be "waves" with a fish emerging.  If I angle the vines, music notes, and waves to kind of flow one into the other, that might help the cake to look cohesive.  Anyhow, I don't know how maleable the cake lace is and if this will even be possible!


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In my experience, the Cake Lace colors that you mix from powder (e.g., plain white, black, navy blue, chocolate brown) are much more flexible than the premixed pearls and metallics.  I am confident you could gather the more flexible lace to taper the ends.  It might work with the pearls and metallics, too, but I'm less sure of that. 

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I'm not even sure what I'm getting!  I want to order the Claire Bowman white....or black.  I haven't even decided on which color would look best!  Background will be a pearlescent blue so it's either music notes in black or white.  Either way, I'm getting the plain non metallic variety so hopefully the "squishing" works.  Thank you for your input.

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One more question  :)  If I wanted to use that music note cake lace for a 8" round, how many mats would that require and how much cake lace?  I've still never used the stuff so have no idea how much you can actually do with a 200 gram tub of mix!

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Assuming you use the same yellow musical staff mat I was talking about from GSA, the website says each piece is about 7" long. For an 8" round, you'll need about 25.1" of lace (8" x 3.14 to get the circumference). Divide 25.1 by 7" and you'll need four pieces of lace. A small tub of lace mix will be more than enough...you'll probably only need to mix up one batch. 

Lace can be made ahead of time, do only one mat is needed. Store finished pieces between sheets of waxed paper in a ziplock bag. If you're going to let the pieces air dry, you'd want to start making them at least four days before you need them - one piece per day.  If you're going to dry the lace in the oven, you can get them all done in a day.

You can also Google the brand of lace mix you're using to find 'how to' videos that may be of help  


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This is great!  Last thing.  Do you do two layers of cake lace/piece?  I'm not in a rush so think I'll air dry.  The manufacturers recommend doing one coat, letting it dry, then doing another coat to make removal easier.  Is this really necessary?

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This mat is fairly deep. I do two layers of cake lace mix  just to be safe. Since you've got time, you could always do a test to see how things go with just one layer.