graduation cap cookies

I made these graduation cap cookies at the request of my friend Monica, who I've been making goodies for over the course of several years now! Her daughter was graduating from 8th grade, and Monica wanted these as cookie favors for her graduation dinner party. I didn't have a graduation cap cookie cutter though, so I asked my handy hubby to make me one! (See this link for other copper cutters that he has made for me!)

She only needed 16 cookie favors, so I made one batch of sugar cookie dough and one batch of royal icing (you can find both recipes in my new book!). After chilling the dough briefly, I rolled it out and used my new shiny copper cutter to cut out my graduation cap shapes.

After the cookies had baked and cooled, I used stiff blue royal icing to outline the graduation caps.

Then I filled it in the runny blue royal icing, let it dry overnight, and then used the stiff blue icing to outline the caps once more and add details.

Next, I used stiff yellow royal icing to add the tassels.

And the final touch was a little dot of stiff blue icing as the "button" that holds down the tassle.

Happy Graduation, Viviana! Hope you enjoyed the cookies!

hello kitty graduation cake

My little boy graduated from preschool last month!  I can't believe how fast time flies!  His school had a graduation ceremony for his class, so I decided to bake the class a graduation cake.  Since I didn't get to use my designs and sketches from the last graduation cake that I made, I decided to use it now, except in blue!  The cake would have Hello Kitty piped on the top, with a graduation cap on her head, and a piped petal frosting on the sides.

I started by making my favorite homemade chocolate cake recipe, baked in two 8-inch pans.  Once the cake layers were baked and cooled, I made my favorite chocolate mousse recipe from America's Test Kitchen.  (Once again, the same chocolate mousse recipe from all the triple chocolate mousse cakes that I've made in the past).

After I piped my chocolate mousse onto the first layer of cake, I used an offset spatula to smooth it out, and then placed my second layer of cake on top.  And then I was ready to frost!

I whipped up a quick batch of cream cheese buttercream, basically a basic buttercream with a stick of cream cheese added to it, colored it light blue, and then did a quick crumb coat of frosting over the entire cake.

Then came the petal piping on the sides.  I first saw this great technique at Hungry Housewife, and since then have used it to make a purple ombre petal cake, as well as a camoflauge petal cake, and I love the effect every time!

The first step is to pipe a vertical row of round circles, using a Wilton #12 tip.  Then using an offset spatula, drag it accross each circle to smear the circles into petals.  Then pipe the next vertical row of circles, drag with the offset spatula, and continue this process until the entire cake is covered.

Then I used black frosting to pipe a Hello Kitty outline on the top of the cake, as well as a black graduation cap on her head, and a yellow nose.

Next I filled in Hello Kitty's face using a star tip and white frosting, and I filled in her bow with royal blue icing.  And the final touch was a yellow tassle coming out of her graduation cap!

By the way, it's no coincidence that I used UCLA colors.  GO BRUINS!!!

I also piped a congratulations message for his class, but I misjudged the spacing and so I had to add a bunch of exclamation marks to even it out!

The teachers served the cake at snack time, right before the graduation ceremony, and even though Matthew usually doesn't like chocolate cake, he ate the whole slice!

Here's a picture of him walking out of the graduation ceremony.

Happy graduation, my Matthew!  I'm so proud of you and can't wait to see you flourish in Kindergarten!