Book graduation cake

Just over a month ago my aunt asked me to make a graduation cake for my cousin Paul, who had completed his MBA at Northwestern University. She wanted it to be a surprise, and I would be bringing the cake to his engagement party to celebrate. (Talk about life milestones: an engagement and graduation in the same weekend!)

The best part was I was given carte blanche to design the cake however I wanted. After scouring the internets for a while, I came up with this:

Lest you think the massiveness of this cake is an optical illusion... it isn't. This is two 9x13 cakes stacked atop each other--enough to feed a very large crowd!

At first glance it looks like a very simple cake, and in many ways it is. But it's very easy for a simple cake to look blah, so I like to focus on the little details and touches to make the cake really pop. They're always my favorite parts. Take for instance this graduation cap and tassel...

... or how about the hand-painted Northwestern seal?

... or the hand-cut Kellog logo?

Although I had a stressful few weeks back in May/June making 3 cakes in 4 weeks, it's always great looking back at what I created and being really proud of the end result!

Yours in loving books, both those made of paper and cake,

Jacqueline

If you have any questions on how to assemble this type of cake, feel free to ask in the comments and I'll respond as soon as I can. When making the cake I just Googled "fondant book cake" and found some really great mini tutorials out there. This was one of my favorites. Good luck!