Frozen Buttercream Transfer

So I was reading one of the blogs I follow this afternoon and came across a really amazing cake that used a decorating technique called a frozen buttercream transfer (FBCT). I'd seen this done before on a cake the site featured, but I didn't really feel like attempting the technique then. Well, as today is Sunday and I generally have nothing to do on Sundays, I decided to tie on my apron and try it out.

The basic idea of a FBCT is that you pipe a picture in icing on a piece of wax paper, freeze it over night, and then place it on a cake and peel off the wax paper to reveal a super awesome decoration. There's a lot more involved in it than just that, though. Here's how you do it:

First, you'll need the following:

Wax Paper, Plain Paper, Permanent Marker, Some kind of design or picture, Buttercream Icing (I used a can of Pillsbury Vanilla), Food Coloring, Piping Bags (I loaned mine to my sister so I only had those squeeze bottles, they worked great though. You can always use zippy bags with the corners cut off, too.), Tape, Cookie Sheet (or some kind of flat surface that is portable, cutting board maybe?)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Trace the image onto a piece of wax paper.

I decided to go with something easy, so I picked a picture of Pooh out of a coloring book, but you can do pretty much anything.


2. Tape the piece of plain paper to the cookie sheet. On top of it, with the marker side facing DOWN, tape the wax paper to the cookie sheet making sure there are no wrinkles or creases. Set aside.


3. Mix the colors you'll need for the picture and put them in the piping bags (or squeeze bottles or zippy bags).


4. Starting with the outline and the details, trace the outline of the picture with the appropriate color. REMEMBER: The bottom of the picture will become the top when you put it on the cake so you have to ice accordingly, from the front to the back.


5. Continue icing until all of the picture is filled in. Ice over top of the details with the fill colors, but be VERY careful not to smudge them. Use a paint brush to level out the different layers as you go.



6. Put the whole thing in the freezer. If you're actually going to put this on a cake, leave it in overnight to make sure it gets really hard. If you're just playing around, like I was, then a couple hours should be fine.

7. Pull the FBCT out of the freezer and very, very carefully untape it from the cookie sheet and pick it up. Flip it over onto the cake (or whatever you're decorating) wax paper up and push it down a little to make sure it sticks.


8. Slowly, and VERY carefully, peel the wax paper from FBCT.


9. VIOLA! Now you have an awesome cake decoration :)



This was a lot of fun to play with. I'm really glad I practiced first before trying to actually put something like this on a cake though. The black smudged a little here and there and I didn't do a great job smoothing out the piping lines. I think it was overall pretty successful. I'm definitely excited to try it again!