can an edible image be applied on top of chocolate buttercream? what effect would the {light}chocolate have on the look of the image?
thanks, gina

I think you will get your best results using an image on a white cake. Or one with very pale frosting. I made this mistake using an image on blue frosting and ended up having to go over my image in icing.

You could ice the sides of your cake in chocolate and chocolate borders...but frost your top part with white. You could always use shredded or grated chocolate curls to garnish the top.

Good luck!

I've never tried it but on my instruction page it says you are supposed to use white...

I did one where I iced the cake white and then put down the image and then iced around the image chocolate/black.... it was a pain but the cake does look like it is completely iced in the black icing, even though there is really white icing underneath the image...(the image is mostly black too.)

thanks for the advice. have any of you ever had a problem with your images bleeding onto the icing? can't you tell it's my first time trying one.

No they won't bleed (that's ok I just got mine a month ago!)...actually I have had problems with mine drying out too fast (dry house!) so I even sometimes lightly mist the top of my cake with water and then lay down the image so that the image will bond better with the cake. No bleeding!

thanks so much, i think i'm ready to give it a try

Don't forget to post a pix!

i'm gonna try. i didn't think i had a digital camera until i remembered i bought my 10 yr old one for christmas. now if i can get him to show me how to use it

I asked the guy who prints the edible images for me about spritzing the cake (since mine didn't totally dissolve on the practice cake I did) and he advised against it stating it "could" cause the colors to bleed on the transfer. He suggested thinning out the buttercream more so it wouldn't crust so fast. I am doing two more cakes with edible images next month, so hopefully, that'll work!

The lady at Icing Images also said you could lay a damp paper towel over the cake top while you are preparing the image...

The spritzing I did was only a very light mist...if you get any large droplets on there it can cause the image to bleed but if you make sure the surface is only slightly damp and no large droplets you should be fine, I haven't had any bleeding to happen.

I always smooth my cake as soon as possible and then apply the image right away. I have not had to spritz water before. You just need to make sure you do not let the icing crust for too long.

I used mine on a buttercream tinted gray.. Came out horrible.. Of course my baby loved it, but he's 4.. What does he know about perfection. LOL here it is..

I did an edible image on chocolate bc and thank goodness there wasn't too much white in the picture because all the white turned dark and looked terrrible. It had white letters and I had to pipe over them so that they could be seen.

On my website (see www link below) on the photo page you can see the motorcycle on I did....I iced it first in white, lay down the image (which had a black background) and then iced black around it.

If you have an image you could maybe put a brown background on it with the image printer, and then put it over white, and then ice around it chocolate and the top will look iced chocolate because of the brown background you added on your picture...

i do about 3 to 4 edible images every week. i use to do the frozen bct, but now that i have my website, everyone on this base knows about me. so i had to find something that was quicker than what i was doing. here are some tips from many of the mistakes i made.
when you purchase sheets, make sure you will be using them within the month, but if you can't put them in the plastic bag that they came in and put it in the bathroom. turn the shower on to hot and close the door. while i am fiddling with my printer i set up the image the way i want it then i go in and turn the shower off and take out a sheet and place it in the printer. i also have used a hot towel too. i buy sheets by the bundle so i often have some that sit and get hard. i print my image right after i iced the cake. the sheet will not soak into icing that crusts. if i do have that problem i use very hot water and a spatula and go over the area that the sheet will be covering...never had any problems with that. if the sheet will not come off the paper, stick it in the freezer. if you have an image that will use a lot of ink, print it first then ice your cake. it should be dried by the time you are finished. hope this helps. oh, if you are not going to be using edible images a lot, like i do, you may run into problems with the printer becoming clogged. well, that's another issue. if you need help with that, let me know.

I don't have a printer, so i get my images from a cake store about 30 miles from here. They have foil zip lock bags that he put them in, so I'm hoping that keeps them fresh. I only picked them up two weeks earlier than I need them though. With four kids, I don't like to leave more than I have to for the last minute. I will definitely use a thinner icing on the top of the cake next time though. It was totally crusted when I applied the image to my practice cake last week. I guess that's why it never really absorbed into the cake properly. But then, that's why I did the practice cake. To figure out where my problems would be