Hi everyone

I'm a relative novice to cake decorating (I've done mainly novelty cakes for my kids birthdays).

Hubby is having a 40th and he wants a Saturday night fever cake (here's the image).

How do you think I should go about making this?

I'm thinking of using a sheet cake. Would it be best to use
1. a star tip to pipe this image onto a cake with buttercream?
2. rolled fondant?
3. Buttercream frozen transfer? (although, the black may run?)

Please HELP! I think I'm way out of my depth here.

Thanks!!

Great image! Bake a sheet cake. You could do a chocolate transfer for the image since the black may run if you did a buttercream transfer. I'll look for the post on how to do the chocolate image transfer and send to you. Also, depending on how big you can get the image, you could maybe stand it up in middle of cake with popsicle or lollipop sticks. (One of these is mentioned in chocolate image transfer instructions). But if you stand it up, I was thinking you could color the top of sheet cake with different colored squares to look like the dance floor.

Here is the link:

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-13945.html

Hope this information helps.

Why not just get an edible image. Go to a bakery or Carvel and they can scan the image for you onto edible image. It's alot easier and the cake looks great.
You can also make a plaque out of fondant two days prior bday.
Fondant plaque:
Roll the fondant and then cut the fondant into a plaque shape or what ever shape you wish. Next have a painters brush and the colors that you need to draw the Saturday night fever onto the fondant plaque (or you can use edible markers). After you're done, let the plaque air dry for 2 days prior to putting it on the cake.

Thanks Sweetbaker and mamasota.

I live in Asia and therefore can't pop over to have an edible image printed (how I wish!). I'm heading to my Wilton distributor tomorrow and will ask what they have in terms of materials to do either of what you have suggested.

The party's not until next weekend so I will give one of your ideas a test run this weekend (depending on materials!).

Thanks so much for your help. I will report back!

Kathy

Okay - I've taken Sweetbaker's advice and done a chocolate transfer with dark choc and white choc. It was surprisingly easy! I followed the instructions in the link. I've attached my work so far. I'm pretty happy with it (most importantly the birthday boy is very impressed!).

Now, my question is: "How do you recommend I do the orange background with the yellow starburst?". I'm thinking of using orange and yellow buttercream and then pushing the chocolate transfer into it. BUT, how do I get the starburst to 'merge' into the orange?. Any ideas?

Also, "How do you recommend I do the rest of the cake? Should I just do it all in orange and pipe some stars around the base?" Sorry for the basic questions but as I said earlier - I'm a novice!

Thanks everyone!

Kathy

Can you get a hold of the Wilton spray mists in orange and yellow!!! I would do that!! If not the Buttercream idea will work but won't give the same effect!!

LEK--

You could use BC frosting and put yellow in center in an oval shape then orange around that. Use a toothpick or skewer to pull yellow and orange into each other then finish with a dry brush back and forth for a feathered look (practice first if you need to on wax paper). Then let it crust and smooth with paper towel. Now it's ready for transfer, which BTW, is awesome!!!

Kathy, your transfer came out so awesome!!! I love it! I think the wilton spray colors will likely give you the effect that you are looking for. Can't wait to see the finished product!

Tanya

The transfer looks wonderful! I agree about using the color spray mist. Spray the yellow starburst then the rest of the cake orange. A yellow border would probably look nice to pick up the yellow in the starburst if you are planning to also use orange for the sides of the cake and not just for the top.

If you do the spray colors, I would spray the yellow over most of the cake and let it dry, then put a (heavyweight) paper cutout of the starburst pattern over the yellow, and spray the orange. I think that should keep the colors separate, while still giving you your starburst pattern.

By the way, AWESOME JOB on the chocolate transfer!!!

Wow! Awesome chocolate transfer! I bookmarked that site for future reference. That is awesome! I do pretty good FBCT's, so I guess I could try this too!

great transfer it makes me want to give it a try.

Well I made the cake. The birthday boy was very impressed (and greatly enjoyed watching me make it... he was fascinated).

I used whipped icing - tinted orange for the bulk of the cake and tinted yellow for under 'John'. I then sprayed the whole thing with red spray colouring (this stuff is amazing - I love it!).

I found getting the edges straight very difficult. Any tips?

Here it is...

You did a FANTASTIC job!!!! I don't think it could've turned out any better...really nice work!!!

NICE--Very nice! I think I will make my friend one, She is a total Bee Gees fan.

That looks fantastic!! Great job! The colors look fabulous.