These are just a few examples of what you can do with a frozen buttercream transfer. It is simple to use and is a great way to get a picture on your cake without using an edible ink printer. As you can see with these cakes, the picture can either cover the entire top of the cake (Beatles Cake) or can be used as an accent (castle and Eagles cakes). It is really your preference, just make sure to plan ahead. After making your buttercream transfer icing, follow these simple steps to make a frozen buttercream transfer.




Find, copy, or print out a picture. Keep in mind that your final product will be a mirror image so, it is best to use the mirror image setting on your printer (especially when including letters). Once you have your picture, tape it to a stiff, movable surface like a cake board. Then, tape a piece of wax paper over your picture.


Step 2

Pipe all of the outlines on your image with black icing and a small round tip (#2 or #1 depending how thin you need your outline). You can color your transfer icing black but I prefer to use a tube of black Wilton icing because it is very hard to get a true black.

***Notice how any detail I want to show in the final image is black (ie bricks on the castle) and I ignored those I was not interested in like the bushes and shadow lines. ***




Step 3

Now you need to start thinking of your picture in layers. For example, when making a face, you should fill in the colored part of the eyes, then the white parts, then the mouth, then the whole face. I say this because, when filling in the white part of the eye, you will not only pipe into the empty space but over top of the colored part as well. The same goes for the entire face. When filling in this area, you will cover the eyes, nose and mouth. If you do not fill in these features first, you will not see them in your final product. In other words, the first layer of your picture is the front of the picture. The last layer will be the part of the transfer that is laying on the cake.

With that being said, you can now start coloring your icing and piping it onto your picture. Round tips work best. The size will vary depending on the amount of space you need to cover. Fill in with straight lines, as close together as you can. If you are still confused as to what order to pipe in, here is how I made the castle...





First fill in all the small pink and purple details like the tower peaks, windows, sills, door, and flags.




Then cover the entire large area of the castle with light pink icing.  The door and windows should be covered too.  I didn't cover the ENTIRE castle with light pink icing but I wasn't exactly neat about it either.











Step 4

Now that your picture is completely filled in, take uncolored (or colored) transfer icing and a rose tip (flat and angled). Add one last layer of icing to the entire transfer.

*** If you remember from the final picture at the top, my castle was on a blue background.  I colored the final layer of transfer icing to match so it blends more when it is placed on the cake. ***





When that is complete, place another layer of wax paper on top and lightly push down on your transfer. Do not flatten the transfer. You are simply easing the piping lines together so they show up as a solid picture in your final picture.





Step 5

For best results, keep in your freezer for 1 day. If you are in a hurry, you may be able to get away with freezing it for a few hours.

Step 6

Place on your cake!

Wow, it has been way to long since I've posted.  My friends and family have been keeping me busy with cake orders.  That means new cake guides will be coming soon!  For now, I want to share with you my newest, old cake decorating trick.  Yes you read that correctly :)  For years cake decorators have been icing their cakes with Spackle or putty knives.  It was only recently that I started doing this myself.  The results are amazing.
Just see for yourself...



The buttercream covered bottom tier here was iced used an angled spatula.  It is pretty smooth but you can tell it is definitely buttercream icing.


In this second version of the cake I used the Spackle knife...


As you can see, it is much smoother than the first picture.

To use the Spackle knife I first place the icing on the cake with a large piping bag and large flat tip (ie Wilton tip #182).  Once the cake is covered, I smooth it out with an angled spatula.  To get it "perfectly" smooth I then grab my Spackle knife and go over the cake one last time.  Use light pressure so you don't take too much icing off the cake.