Longhorn Graduation Cake

by Katie
(Austin, TX)

I made this graduation cake for a friend's babysitter, who was graduating from the University of Texas.

It's a white cake with an almond flavored Italian Meringue buttercream. The decorations on the top tier are made of fondant.

I used longhorn cookie cutters to cut out the longhorns and made black graduation caps from fondant, then used a clay extruder to make the tassles and painted them with a mix of gold luster dust and vodka.

If I could do it over again, I'd cover the cake in fondant. The amount of coloring that I had to use to get the burnt orange color gave the buttercream an off taste, in my opinion. (Then again, maybe it was just me since I was looking for an off taste)