Grad Cakes of the Year! (2023)
Graduation is a milestone that many like to celebrate with a special cake. In this year's custom orders, we saw traditional designs, metallic-inspired designs, and personalized designs. Let's dive into these year's grad cake trends!
Of all the 10+ years we've been decorating cakes, school colors and a graduation cap and tassel are always on trend. Wether you ice your cake in buttercream or in fondant, creating this design looks classy and clean when decorating in school colors.
For this cake above, we used a golden yellow painted in edible gold, as well as a blue made with Navy and Royal Blue (colors are by Chefmaster). For the cap, mix fondant with a bit of gum tragacanth to allow for a firmer-drying fondant. For the cap, cut a rectangle (for the base) and square piece (for the cap top). Also, for extra topper strength, use a piece of cardboard under the cap square.
This cake above is a 3-layer, 6" cake covered in fondant on a 10" fondant-covered cake drum. We incorporated a pattern imprint on the gold strips, and the gold tassel was made using a fondant extruder and edible gold dust. For this cake we charged $325 given it was ordered less than 1 week in advance.
2. Metallic Accents
Metallic is a new trend this year. The customer for this cake above opted for a simple cake design with glam and gold roses and a cute cap. For this cake we took what were previously red roses from CalJava, and colored them in gold luster dust.
For the cap, instead of what was done with the first cake, you'll notice that this cap is rounded, and it is approximately 4". Uncertain how to achieve such a round, we ended up using our 4" cake pan to create this. Turns out that this was super simple! The cake dome after baking served as the rounded part and it took some slight trimming around the edges to complete the half sphere. We also covered this half sphere in gananche before covering it with fondant.
This cake above is a 9" round on a 12" cake drum. We added a printed sign held up by toothpicks and a piece of matching fondant. Also, although this cake is decorated in buttercream, we did add a ganache layer underneath to help with firmness of the cake. This cake was priced at $275.
The family that ordered this cake had a son that was graduating high school and leaving for Marine Corp boot camp. Instead of the traditional look, they opted for an extra special Marine Corp design.
The BIG challenge on this cake was creating the eagle, globe, and anchor. We tried to create a mold out of a 3D image, but that was a FAIL! It turned out, breaking down this design piece by piece was what had to be done. Honestly, I was concerned about this, but breaking it down and working through it one piece at a time finally got it done!
This cake was an 8" and 10" cake on a 12" cake drum decorated in fondant (with ganache under the fondant). The fondant is colored in Navy and Black (also from Chefmaster). The eagle, globe, and anchor, letters, and buttons are painted in gold luster dust. This cake was priced at $500 and serves 50-60.
Note: Some general take-aways from these projects, we like to use ganache to help keep cakes firm. Check out our go-to dark chocolate recipe is here. Also, all of these cakes were chocolate! We'll share our customer-favorite chocolate cake recipe on our recipe tab later this summer.
I hope you had fun with any graduation cakes you made this year. This is such a special time for so many, celebrating so much hard work and dedication. It's such an honor to be part such a big milestone.
Here's to the Class of 2023!
Happy cake decorating ♡
Christie
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