Rebel Pride ~ Graduation

Graduation cakes almost always have the date on them.  

So now shame on me, you will see just how far behind I am on posting cake pictures!!!

Clean and simple.

Use the school colors.

Use the school logo/mascot.

Mortar boards are a must in my book! (I have a great mold that I make with chocolate to sit on top)

AND of course the ever challenging CONGRATULATIONS that must be placed on the cake!

(I ALWAYS have a hard time getting that one centered and so setting it askew helps in not making it obvious if you started piping your letters in the right place or not!) 

15 letters,  count them....FIFTEEN letters in one word, the albatross of my piping bag!

Topsy Turvy Chocolate Graduation

Graduation celebrations are so important. 

This is for a college graduation.

The request for the cake:

Topsy Turvy - check

chocolate! - check

graduation theme - check

This cake is iced in buttercream with hand cut fondant zebra stripes.

A fondant diploma, and a molded chocolate mortar board to top it all off!

Congrats to the Grad!

GSU Teacher Graduation

For a Georgia Southern Graduate with a Teaching Degree.

The pencils are made from chocolate.

Congratulations Mary~Michael!

Mortarboard Mayhem....or Mad Cap Grad Cap!

How amazing is it that my "niece" is graduating from High School. Her mother isn't my sister by birth, but she's the sister that I met in college. My kids know her as "Aunt" Kathy and I think of her kids as close as my own.

Seems like only yesterday, this happened...

When we moved away to Texas, I'm pretty sure this was the last time she sat on my lap and was wrapped in my arms....

Where does the time go????

So my amazingly smart, talented, beautiful and all around wonderful "niece" Kaitlyn is graduating from High School this Saturday. She is 2nd in her class and will be giving a speech at the commencement. I wish I could be there, but alas we are still in school here and cake duty calls me as well. I'm hoping to get a copy of the video!

When her announcement arrived in the mail, I started thinking about what kind of gift to get her, I of course wanted it to be something from my heart. Most things I make are perishable, but are made with love, so I decided to make her some cookie favors for her graduation party.

So 8 dozen cookies, count 'em 96 cookies later.....

I sent them overnight FedEx today. I can't wait for them to arrive so I know what she thinks about them.

Congratulations Kaitlyn!

I am beaming with pride, I love you and am so proud of you.....oh and about that whole CSU thing....we'll have to talk about that later! Go Buffs!

CPA-2010

A surprise party for passing your CPA exam! What great friends!

And to get a themed cake......how lucky indeed!

She wanted a triple chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream icing.

I wanted it to look realistic as possible so I made the buttons from white chocolate in a mold I found at ACMoore.

I added the (modeling chocolate)paper roll and a screen read out that looked like the numbers you see on an adding machine.
I named it the CPA-2010~ hee hee

Congratulations Sarah!

Georgia Southern Graduation

We aren't too far from Statesboro, GA, which is home to Georgia Southern University. Because we are so close our Elementary school is lucky enough to host the graduating students in their last semester for student teaching. Our kids are lucky....check out how cool GSU is....

Direct from GSU's website ...

"We are a Carnegie Doctoral-Research university providing the classic residential campus experience. Georgia's largest and most comprehensive center of higher education south of Atlanta, every state and 86 nations are represented in the student body. The University's hallmark is student-centered education for undergraduate and graduate students alike."

So last week Georgia Southern had their fall graduation and I was lucky enough to get to design TWO different cakes.

This is the more recent Eagle logo GSU uses.

And this is the more traditional logo!
Congratulations to all the graduates!

CNA ~ Certified Nursing Assistants

In our lives, at one point or another we have all been helped or will be helped by a CNA.
You really have to give a great big hand to anyone working in the medical profession.... I mean those people save lives and everything!
CNA's sometimes get stuck with the "dirty" work of taking care of people....and yet they do it every day, because they know how important it is to each and every person they help.

When I was asked to make a cake for a CNA graduating class, I of course added some of the things that help them do their jobs......a scrub smock,
a stethoscope,
a syringe,
some medicine
and a band-aid.
See....you feel better already don't you?

The teacher of the class didn't want to forget one of the most important skills a CNA must possess...

the ability to take care of a bedpan!

Okay....I know what you're thinking.....ewwwwwwwww!
But really this cake is 100% edible and actually I would say the "poo" is really quite tasty! It's a delicious chocolate buttercream recipe that I make with Hershey's cocoa powder....yum ~yum! I even made a "poo" border around the "bottom" edge of the cake to ensure everyone would get their fair share of the goodness!
(I haven't heard back to see how it all went over with the students....but I'll keep you posted.)

CNA's do have BIG hearts!

Congratulations everyone....you did it!

"Sporty" Graduation

I think South Effingham High School will be missing Matt and Sally from the Baseball and Softball teams! I love it when people share their celebrations with each other.

Congratulations Matt and Sally!

Graduation Celebration

Yah! You graduated!What better way to celebrate than with a cake?

This has a chocolate mortarboard and a hand rolled fondant "diploma". Since these graduates had attented different schools, I went with a more general celebration theme rather than include school colors or mascots.

These guys have made a great accomplishment! Congratulations Nolan and Caleb!

Pink Graduation Cuppies!

What a yummy way to celebrate your High School Graduation.

These cupcakes are triple chocolate cake with light pink buttercream icing swirls and are adorned with chocolate mortarboards and hand made fondant "diplomas".

South Effingham High School's color is maroon, but I didn't figure that people want to walk away with a mouth full of dark red icing....so I went with a light pink and accented the mortarboards and diplomas with maroon tassels and ribbons.

(Don't you just love these cute little brioche cups instead of the standard muffin wrapper. Adds a nice little flair and shape to the cupcake.)

Here is the great feedback I got from the Mom ~

"Karen,

Kimber loved her pink and chocolate graduation cupcakes. We ate at Longhorns after graduation and everyone in the restaurant had to stop and look, we gave the leftovers and your web site info to the employees. They loved the way they looked and loved the taste even more.

Thanks Kim J."

Making people happy is a wonderful side effect of baking good stuff.

Georgia Tech Graduation

I think it is interesting to know the story behind a school's mascot.

The Georgia Institute of Technology is located in the heart of Atlanta. I have been to Atlanta once, but have not been to the campus. So I don't have any first hand knowledge of GT. However,I will say that since moving to Georgia almost two years ago, that they do LOVE their insects here....I mean you HAVE to.....they are EVERYWHERE!

So without further delay I give you the story of the origin of GT's Yellow Jacket mascot.

(courtesy of Wikipedia)

The term Yellow Jacket or Yellowjacket has been used to refer to students and the various sports teams as early as the 1890's. Fans of Georgia Tech would often wear yellow jackets to sporting events in support of the early Georgia Tech teams. The early football teams, lacking gold fabric for jerseys, wore yellow jerseys. John Heisman told the Atlanta Constitution that he wanted his teams to be referred to as the Yellow Jackets in October 1905. In November 1906, The Atlanta Journal portrayed a University of Georgia football player being attacked by a yellowjacket with the words "Somebody's about to get stung" as the caption. This was the first time that the Georgia Tech sports teams were referred to as the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in print.

Isn't it fun to see the progression of the little bugger?



Go Yellow Jackets!

Congratulations on your International Affairs Degree Brian!

Graduation Time!

Graduation season is in the air!

Armstrong Atlantic State University located here in Savannah has just graduated a beautiful young nursing student. The compass point is their school logo.

Maroon and Gold are good colors.

Nurses need band aids and medicine to make patients feel better.

A "sweet" stethoscope helps her to hear hearts beating!

Congratulations Lauren!