Easy Graduation Hat Cake Plate Tutorial

I love using cake plates to display food.  It's such an easy way to create different elevations and create a beautiful spread without much effort.  I have a rather large collection of cake plates for just this purpose, but when I was designing Colleen's graduation party, I wanted to try something new.

DIY cake plates that look like graduation caps!  

I found everything I needed at the cake store for a grand total of $3.  (Well, I already had the silver spray paint.)  A two-pack of plastic bowls in the perfect shape, and silver cake boards, which are made out of nice, sturdy cardboard, and are already covered in food-safe foil.  The silver color was perfect for our yellow and grey school color theme.

Spray paint the plastic bowls silver and let dry.  Cut the rectangular cake board into a square for the mortarboard.  I chose to leave the raw edge unfinished.  I suppose you could find some silver duct tape or glue on some aluminum foil or something, but why?  My favorite saying in cake decorating is "Every cake has a back."  So do cake plates.  It's liberating.  You don't need complete perfection, just for it to look good from the visible angles!

See?  Nobody could tell!

A ribbon tassel added the perfect finishing touch.

Cut several equal lengths of ribbon and tie in the center with another piece of ribbon.   If you're using thicker ribbon, like I did, cut each tail of ribbon into several fringe pieces.  Fold the fringed ribbon in half (the center point is now your top), and tie with yet another piece of ribbon.

Glue the ribbon tassel to the top of the mortarboard.  I scrounged some yellow sequins from my daughters' craft supplies and glued that to the end of the ribbon, in the dead-center of the square.  It was the perfect little finishing touch.

Now who's ready to celebrate some fabulous graduates??