Graduation Cake Ideas

Need inspiration for Graduation cake ideas?  When someone graduates, it's a cause for major celebration, as it is the end of a long road and the start of the next chapter.  We have ideas from these themes as well as the traditional cap and diploma themed cakes.To help the newly graduated student celebrate their achievements, make them a cake that reflects these sentiments. Please submit your graduation cake decorating ideas below to our cake gallery.

We've also included some graduation cupcake ideas below.

Use Their Degree or Diploma as a Theme

This works best for university students or post-graduates, as you can make specific decorations for the individual at hand. For example, finishing a degree in English could entail making a book shaped cake and icing their favorite quote on top. For a medical student, you could make a syringe or stethoscope.

With each cake, it's usually best to make a rectangular or circular cake that is bigger than you need. You then need a card template of the shape you want to make the cake into and cut off the excess cake. Frost it as necessary, taking care to plan your layers of color.

Graduation Cap Cake Ideas

This cake is a graduation cap cake that is being filled in with stars and adding a rope tassel.
You can easily trace a graduation cap on a large sheet cake with a toothpick. Then fill in and decorate.

Use the Wilton Graduate Cake pan. Here are Wilton's instructions on decorating a graduate.

Trace a pattern of a graduation cap onto a large cake fill in with stars and decorate.

Frost the Future

Use a picture of their future profession either as an edible cake image or as a cartoon style drawing. If you're feeling technological, it may be possible to stick their face on a picture of someone doing the job for which they've been studying.

Failing that, you could pick out a tool of their future trade, such as an eraser for a teacher or a gavel for a lawyer and base your graduation cake ideas around that. These will be quite difficult cakes shapes to make, so it will better to ice a regular cake and either draw the design on or use strips of colored frosting to create your picture.

Print off a student, business man or career oriented cake decorating pattern to create a unique cake.

School Pride

Use their school mascot or logo as the inspiration for your cake. Your approach to this kind of cake will depend on the complexity of the logo or mascot. If it's a circular design or one with simple shapes, then make a larger rectangular cake and use templates to cut the right shapes. Otherwise, aim to ice the cake with the logo on top. For very complex designs, it's easier to print off a copy and use sugar glue to attach to the cake for decoration.

Graduation Cupcakes Ideas

Make small graduation hats out of fondant and place on each cupcake or add a small piece of paper rolled up and tied with a pretty string to look like a diploma.

Photo courtesy of quintanaroo

Photo courtesy of clevercupcakes

More Graduation Cake Pictures

Photo courtesy of samdogs
A fun two tier cake decorated with fondant letters and a star for each graduate.
Overall, the best source of graduation cake ideas will come from the graduate. If the most important thing about graduating for them is the gown and cap, then that's what you should take as your theme. If they see it as a stepping-stone to something bigger, then you'll want to make a design that focuses on the future.

Graduation Cake Decorating Idea Video Tutorial

Graduation Party Help

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