Hello again friends! It has been a while since I last posted. My father stayed with me for a month to fix up our garage and paint our house. Our place is looking so good! I’m so grateful for all of the work he put in. Life is still busy, but a lot less stressful now that the garage is fixed. Since my dad went home, I got the opportunity to make two graduation cakes for a friend of mine. They were very different from anything I have ever made, so I can’t wait to show you the process.
Speaking of graduation cakes, the end of the school year is finally here! My daughter finished up her 2nd grade curriculum. We will take a break for part of the summer and start back up when she is ready. For now, she is going to a couple different Vacation Bible Schools, and is signed up for three different dance classes for the summer. It should be a very busy summer, but I am glad that my daughter will be having a lot of fun. Plus, on our free days, we will try to focus on learning piano and violin!
Graduation Cakes Recipes
First of all, I normally make my cakes coated in delicious buttercream. I really enjoy working with buttercream, and I understand it for the most part. The boys who graduated wanted whipped cream frosting, so I got to try something new! Plus, they wanted marbled cake (chocolate and vanilla), which I have also never made before. I found great recipes for both, and the cakes turned out great and delicious!
Marbled Cake Recipe
This chocolate and vanilla recipe is very easy, and absolutely delicious. The only thing that didn’t work well for me was splitting the batter in half to make the chocolate batter. You do not need half of the batter to be chocolate. There needs to be more vanilla, so you can spoon some chocolate batter into the vanilla to swirl in. This recipe is for three 6 inch layers, and I need six 6 inch layers. At first, I made the recipe as is. Since I had too much chocolate batter left over, I ended up making another batch of batter cut in half. I kept it as vanilla, so that I could use up the chocolate. Other than that, this marbled cake turned out beautiful!
Stabilized Whipped Cream Frosting Recipe
Something that I knew before trying to make whipped cream frosting, was that I needed something to make it stronger. Whipped cream tends to be too soft and just melt. This recipe uses gelatin to make it stronger and hold it together. It is still a very soft frosting that will not harden in the refrigerator like buttercream. Whipped cream is definitely different to work with, but I made it work!
The first time that I made this frosting, I mixed it a little too long. It still tasted great, so I used it for filling the layers and the crumb coats. The next batch of frosting I watched closer, and it turned out perfect and smooth. This is what I used to finished the graduation cakes and add details. Here is the recipe that I used: https://ourbestbites.com/how-to-make-stabilized-whipped-cream/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR3HtahynwvX8bdNrjMSCYOP8WJpn4grhiq8ot9DS6hDsEDz6Ri2ujuT8OY_aem_AVXOxfS4VA4aMC6Y3YL_uebcEWlTaesd7LBOJV9Ic2C3OUzDet9jTrrHVODwwjQmXls5j2R9tznCD6B-pIob-ow1
How I Made These Graduation Cakes!
I simply started by getting 8 inch cake boards to center my 6 inch cake layers on. Then I stacked all of the different layers to see which ones stacked on top of each other would make both cakes the same height. Once I had this figured out, I was ready to begin!
Stacking and Crumb Coat
I began by centering the first layer on the cake board.
Then I added the whipped cream frosting to the top of each layer with my offset spatula. I made the layers of frosting a little thicker since the whipped cream is so light.
Then I repeated adding a layer of cake with frosting topping it until I got to the top layer. For the top layer on both graduation cakes, I like to flip it upside down, so the edges will be nice and sharp when smoothing frosting over it.
After both cakes were stacked, I added a thin crumb coat. When smoothing the sides, the layers like to travel due to the light whipped cream frosting. I made sure the cake was nice and straight, and then put them in the refrigerator while I made more whipped cream frosting for the details.
Smooth Coat
Once I had the perfect batch of smooth whipped cream frosting made up, I used my offset spatula and cake scraper to cover the cake with a smooth coat. When smoothing buttercream frosting, you can apply some pressure to get the smooth coat that you want. It is the complete opposite with whipped cream frosting. This frosting is so light, that you need quite a thick layer of it to get it smooth without getting so much scraped off that you can see the cake layers behind it. That being said, it is easier to get it smoothed out than buttercream is.
Add the College Logos!
I started by printing off pictures of the logos about the right size for the top of the cake. Normally, I would let the frosting harden in the refrigerator and trace the logos onto the cake. Since I used whipped cream frosting, it was too soft to do that. Instead I used a toothpick to freehand draw the logos onto the top of the cakes.
Then I mixed up a vibrant red for both logos. I used a small writing tip to trace the logo, and then fill in all of the red spaces. Then I used my offset spatula to smooth out all of the red frosting.
That was all that was needed for the WSU cougar. To finish off the Utah logo, I put some white frosting into a piping bag with the same small writing tip. Then I filled in the mountains. I used a toothpick to move and remove white and red where needed.
Cake Trim
For the trim, my friend wanted gray for the WSU cake and black for the Utah cake. First, I mixed up the gray, and I piped a simple shell like trim onto the base and top edge of the cake. I ended up using a cake tip similar to 199. These are such small cakes, that I used a smaller piping tip to keep from overwhelming the logos on the top of the cakes. Once the WSU cake was done, I added more black dye to the frosting to create black frosting for the Utah cake trim.
Whipped Cream Bleeds
The cakes were perfect and finished, so I put them in the refrigerator overnight. I really didn’t know what they would do in the refrigerator, so I checked the cakes right when I woke up. That’s when I saw the red had bled a little bit into the white. Apparently that is just the nature of whipped cream frosting, so there isn’t really anything I could have done to stop this. Anyways, they still looked good other that the eye in the WSU cougar and the mountains on the U.
To fix this little problem, I took my piping bag of white frosting out of the refrigerator and added a small line of it in the eye of the cougar. That fixed that cake! The Utah cake took a little bit more work than that. I used a toothpick to scrape and remove all of the white of the mountains. Then I carefully added white frosting back in to make the mountains visible again. That was the best that I could do, and I was happy with it! I boxed the graduation cakes up, and delivered them to two very happy graduates.
Whipped Cream Pros and Cons
Pros:
- very smooth to work with
- powdered sugar doesn’t fly everywhere when mixing it up
- delicious and not overly sweet
Cons:
- very light when trying to smooth it
- does not harden in the refrigerator
- it bleeds after several hours in the refrigerator
All in all, I think using whipped cream frosting is personal preference. I personally rather not use it again, but if someone requires a cake with it, at least I know what to expect next time. I’m so glad that these cakes turned out the way they did, and that my friend’s sons loved them!
You Are Doing The Most Important Job
Almost weekly, I battle with an inner struggle of my love for being a stay-at-home mom and my desire to find myself again. These graduation cakes reminded me of everything I worked for before my kids came along. I graduated high school, and I had multiple college graduations. This was all so that I could be an Interior Designer. I loved it, but when my daughter entered my life, there was a pull on my heart to spend more time with her. When my husband was making enough money to provide for the family, I decided to end my career and be just a mom to my beautiful baby girl. It was the best decision I have ever made, but it is also very hard on me.
The longer I am a stay-at-home mom, the more desire I have to make something of myself. I bake cakes here and there, or I create something beautiful for someone. Every once in a while, I find myself again, but it only lasts for a moment or two. I don’t miss working as an Interior Designer, but I do miss having a life outside of being a mom. This cannot just be me feeling this way. I just want to remind you stay-at-home moms that you are doing the most important job you could be doing. Our kids are being raised as kind and loving little people, who love God and always put Him first. Our schools aren’t teaching about Him. We need to make God the center of our teaching for our kids. He is the only way to make it in this crazy world.
A very good friend and previous coworker of mine sent me a wonderful video this week. I didn’t realize how much I needed it until I heard what this man had to say. Enjoy this video. Cry if you need to. Just know that what you are doing for your kids is so very important, and what you do is noticed. It is noticed by every person that your children interact with. What you do is a blessing in this world. Keep being the best mom you can be, and don’t forget to do something for yourself every now then.