I made these cupcakes for my cousin's daughter's high school graduation. I looked around online and kind of combined my favorite aspects of different graduation cupcakes I found.
My cousin said the graduation gowns were going to be light grey so I got rolling with the fondant. Making the caps was actually very easy. For the base of the cap, I rolled out some fondant and used my pizza cutter to cut 2 inch strips at about every 1/3 of an inch. Then I just pinched the two ends together and set them aside. For the top of the cap, I rolled out my fondant thick, about 1/5 of an inch. Then I used my pizza cutter again to cut squares, with one of the sides at a bit of an angle.
With that drying, I filled my piping bag with brite white buttercream frosting and tip 1M and I swirled one after the other. Then, I positioned the base of the cap an an angle, making sure to dig into the frosting a little. I filled the base with some more frosting and placed the top of the cap on.
For the diploma, I rolled the fondant a little thinner. I cut rectangles about 1"x1 1/4" and just rolled them like little tacos. It just seemed like something was missing because the diplomas were white and were sitting on white frosting. So, I remembered my cousin said that the other color was navy blue.
I cut thin strips of dyed blue fondant and rolled them into mini-roses. Then, I secured them with frosting.
Finally, I mixed some green frosting and piped leaves on either side of the rose. My cousin, her daughter and all the guests loved them.
