Graduation Cupcake Tower

I made this graduation cupcake tower for a co-worker of mine who was having a party for her son. His school colors were red and black so I decorated a cupcake stand with construction paper to match. I made two kinds of cupcakes: Boston cream which was yellow cake filled with home made pastry cream and topped with chocolate ganache frosting. The second flavor was chocolate cake with chocolate raspberry ganache filling and cream cheese buttercream frosting.

I topped each cupcake with alternating red and black molded chocolates that were shaped like diplomas and graduation caps. To make the “Congrats Dan” sign on top I used a styrofoam dome I bought at a craft store. I covered it with black tissue paper. The letters were made out of red fondant circles that I attached to lollipop sticks. I wrote a letter on each circle using black royal icing and a piping bag.