Christopher's Graduation Cake

Here is the cake I made for my brother's graduation party. I began with my signature chocolate cake recipe, a double batch baked in a fifteen inch round cake pan. I also whipped up a big batch of my signature vanilla buttercream. I dirty iced the cake, briefly chilled it to let it set, and topped it with a second coat. Then I tinted the rest of the icing  royal blue (except for a tiny bit of white set aside for touch-ups). This blue is the university color, and in order to achieve such a deep blue I used some royal blue gel food coloring. Much easier than using 50+ drops of blue liquid dye, and it doesn't thin out the icing either. I put a rope border around the bottom edge, and a simple star border around the top. Then I piped "Congratulations Christopher!" (free-handed too) using a larger open round tip, to really make it pop. I also added two blue X's for the university symbol.  On the top and bottom of the cake, I put my candy clay figures from the other day: a graduation cap and a diploma. Again, I kept the cake simple, but in many cases, simpler is better. 
Congratulations to Christopher and all graduates of 2013!