Hi everyone -

I am hoping to attempt my first frozen buttercream transfer and do a Darth Vader cake for Wednesday. My question is: Since Darth Vader is all black...and I have to first outline the transfer in black - should I just use a lighter color black to fill it in so you can see the outlines? Would that look funny? Or does anyone have a picture of one they have done before so I can see it? Maybe I'm choosing to do something too hard for my first time!

Thanks!

Jennifer

Maybe the parts that you outline you could do buttercream with piping gel added in and then the rest of the parts, just use a regular black buttercream.

Hi Jennifer! You could do a very light grey as more of highlight than an outline. I thought these instructions might help when you do your BCT...

http://www.starwars.com/kids/activity/draw/f20040914/

Hi Lisa, didn't I just read in another post that it isn't recommended to freeze piping gel? Janice

I have homemade piping gel in the refrigerator, it is like rubber just being cold, I'm not sure what it might do frozen, I'll stick a little bit in the freezer to see! Janice

Okay, I've got plain piping gel, and some mixed with BC in the freezer, so we will see what happens. Guess I'll give it half hour or so! Janice

What you could do is outline and fill per normal, then when you put it on the cake, go back over the "outline" parts with an art brush dipped in piping gel. That's how I do my darth vadar cakes from the pan.

Here is what I am talking about.

Your Darth cake looks great! The piping gel definitely gives a terrific shine! Janice

Jennifer, could you do your outline in the same color of your cake icing and then fill with the black?

Scratch that last suggestion about the outline...I've just been thinking about it and obviously it won't work for all of the outlines! Sorry, just didn't think it through! Janice

I just took out the "experiment", the plain piping gel doesn't actually freeze, it just got really, really sticky, not solid.

The BC that I just stirred into the gel is pretty much the same, very sticky!

I also froze some of the chocolate mixed with gel that I made for my MD cake, and it froze all right, but as it is thawing out it is also getting sticky, so I think we would have to conclude that piping gel does not freeze well! Janice

I saw a Darth BCT on wilton's site and I believe the outline was grey

I know lots of kids that would freak to see that cake. thats awesome.

Hi, Mouse, I definitely wasn't trying to correct anybody, just got curious about the Homemade (the Wilton may be different) piping gel and how it would work. Since it doesn't freeze solid and gets sticky it would just make the BCT much more difficult to work with.

I'm glad you did the experiment, though, I would not want to give out "bad" advice. Maybe someone can experiment with pre-made piping gel and see what happens since we know it won't work with homemade piping gel.