Is there a rule of thumb on how large a buttercream transfer can be? I tried one and it turned out great. Then I made another one, but larger, and it broke into several pieces. What kind of experiences have you had with them?

My one and only experience wasn't a good one, but I'm going to try again .. I think I made mine too thin and just didn't do something right .. when I looked under checking to make sure I had all the spots filled in, it just looked adorable!! Then I froze it, and when I applied it to the cake, it stuck to the wax paper and would not come off at all ..

as far as size, I think you'd do it to the size that would fit the cake size you needed .. where your's broke could have been an area that was narrow maybe? not sure why it did that.

I love BCT's! I have found that after doing my design, if I put a thick layer of my icing color on the back and freeze well I have no problem. But then again, that's just my experience. Someone may try the same thing and not be as successful.

you can do a transfer the size of your cake top. What ever that may be. Just fill in the colors then follow with the background colors, if using Dawn's recipe there is no need to freeze just refridgerate until hard, then flip on to the cake with the wax paper still attached. IF the paper won't slide right off, place the cake and all into the fridge to firm the transfer back up and if it's really hot just peal the wax paper off while the cake is in the fridge. Its been an unbearable summer most places and that icing starts melting fast.

Good luck to you

I've only tried two transfers, and my problem has been getting them smooth. I also had trouble with not freezing them long enough, but the smoothness is something I'm not sure how to fix.

have you tried lightly smoothing the icing with your finger dipped in corn starch? I read that in another post and it seemed to work well for me. I think BCT are like most everything else the more you practice them the better they come out.

what i do to smooth out the transfer, is allow the transfer to come to room temp, and let crust, yes it takes alittle while i just go do something else while its crusting, then take a piece of viva and smooth it out with that, You just can not move the same piece of towel around because it does pick up the color from the transfer. You also, only want to smooth gentley because you don't want to be messing up your design. You still may not get all the lines out of it, but you will have most of them gone.

Well, I am now TOTALLY addicted to the BCT technique. The Pokemon cake I did for my son's bday this weekend was a 14 inch cake, and the entire top was a frozen BCT. I hate that the frosting perspires as it comes to room temp and, esp when using black frosting to outline, it bleeds. I was able to get around that by gently laying a paper towel just enough to absorb the beads of perspiration every 10 min or so till it stopped beading up. As it defrosts, I'm also smoothing the frosting texture (esp on the base color to get rid of the lines). Once it totall crusts over, I place the smooth side of a pc of wax paper over the side or top of the cake and take a cake spatula and press and run it over the edges to make it totally smooth. It has to be totally crusted at this point though or it'll stick to your design. You can see the pokemon cake I did in the kids bday cakes section of the gallery if you want to see how it comes out using this technique.

This might sound dumb, but when you do a BCT, is that the same as using a very thin icing and drawing the outline and piping it in?

I actually use more of a medium consistency. Something b/w medium and thin. You draw it and fill in the design on wax paper, put a base of frosting behind it then freeze it so you can put it on the cake. It allows me to do more elaborate designs on my cakes with more precision. I'm an ok artist, but I don't freehand on cakes very well.

I just read all the posts here on FBT's to try to find an answer. I recently made two Bratz dolls on a 12X18 cake for my daughters birthday (my first try at this technique). I had some difficulties with it, but nothing major (though I'm happy with the way it turned out), so thought I'd post to see what I may have done wrong. Obviously, just the outlining and filling in was a big (3 hour+) job since the Bratz dolls are so detailed. I followed the instructions I found on this site to the T. I used a piece of plexiglass so I could see the design before freezing it. At this point everything looked good. I put it in the freezer and could not get to the next step for about 5-6 hours, so there it stayed. When I undid the tape and tried to remove the designs and wax paper, it was stuck to the plexiglass. I had to wait a couple of minutes till it reached room temp then I was able to slide one doll off at a time and flip it onto the cake. My images might have been too big (about 11" X 5") and one cracked as I was flipping it (but luckily landed on the cake in a way that I was able to patch it) Then I proceeded to roll the wax paper off carefully, but in doing so, some of the outline came up. I had used Tip 2 for most of the outlining, but thought it was too thick for the facial features and hands, so I switched to Tip 1. However, the outline came up in various places, not just the face area. I was able to patch with icing and smooth out where necessary with cornstarch, so it came out okay once I added the boarders and everything. Just wondering if I left it in the freezer too long? Should I have used celophane or parchment paper instead of waxed paper? Maybe I didn't build up the icing thick enough before freezing or maybe I didn't press it down firm enough? Any clues from anyone? I wish I was able to upload the picture right now, my hubby has to play with my camera/computer so I can do that in the future. As soon as it's done though, I will post it. It did turn out pretty good considering it was my first try.
Thanks for any remarks or suggestions.
Andrea

How smooth was your wax paper? there is a smoother side and a rougher side to most wax paper, and some (the ones on the roll) are more rough in texture. I find the rougher texture grabs the design more. I also pat my transfer down pretty well to "imbed" the smaller outlines into the transfer. The plexiglass may have caused some of the damage too as it would hold more moisture than a cardboard underlay? Just a though. I could be totally off on that point. I always peek at the design too before I stick it in the freezer. BUt I just pull up one corner to see how it looks. I've never done one that narrow either though. I have only done the entire top up until my most recent one where I added 12 different transfers to the side of the cake. But I also did the background for it on each transfer 4inches X 4inches so it would go to the top of the cake. Would love to see how your bratz cake looked though

I use Reynolds Wax paper, and it looks pretty smooth on both sides, so I don't know if that was the cause. Each image was about 11"X5" so I might not have added enough backing icing to make it thick enough (though it looked pretty thick to me) The other thing with this transfer was working in layers (had to do the facial features first, then the hair and clothes and then fill in the face and shoes) Maybe each time a new layer was added I was supposed to cover the whole image with that color, then once the whole thing was done, cover it with another layer of white icing to match the cake top? This would have made the whole image thicker for sure. There's a question... is there a general rule of thumb on how thick a BCT should be once done? I've seen pictures of some that look like they are flush to the cake and others that look like they are sitting on a 1/2 inch platform. What is the norm?

I think it depends on if the person is just doing the transfer or if they do the background too. "My" transfers sit totally flush with the background b/c the background is part of my transfer. I don't think most ppl do it that way though. I'm a tad OCD and a bit of a perfectionist. The cakes I did for this weekend, ppl kept telling me how amazing they are and how flawless they are, but, if you look at Togapi, you can see where the black smeared into his egg shell body and I had to try and fix it. ANd the outline on some of the other ones bled a bit and I was able to fix them a bit. "I" can still see the flaws. But then, "I" know what it was supposed to look like. Everyone else sees what you make for what it is. Not what you were trying to make it. They have no clue what you were shooting for. I have to keep reminding myself that "most" people are not even going to have a clue.

How far ahead of time can you put the BC transfer on a cake?

???

Not sure I understand the question. How long in advance to you decorate a cake for an event? I try not to have my cakes more than a day or two old when I deliver them (personally). I try and do all decorating the day before. The transfer does not fall off or "go bad". It's just frosting. So I would think it would be the same as any other decorating technique (flowers, etc)......

SheilaF,
just saw your Pokemon and it's looks so professional! great job!

I just tried my first FBCT yesterday (it's still in the freezer but looks good so far) using Squirrely Cake's receipe (1/2 cup butter, 1/2 cup shortening, 2 cups icing sugar and vanilla) and wilton colours and found that the buttercream had tiny specks of darker colour in it. For example, the blue BC would have darker blue specks in it. Should this be the case? Do you use wilton paste colours? I then experimented and used my americolours candy colours (oil based) and found that the colour is so much smoother and blends perfectly. Or could this also be because i didn't beat my buttercream enough?

Would love to hear from you and anyone else! I'm still finding my way around the different types of buttercream! Thanks!

Thanks. I saw your comments over there a little while ago

I've never used the 1/2 butter 1/2 crisco recipe. My colors always blend perfectly though and I use the wilton colors in the little jars. I just use the recipe they gave us in class: 1 cup crisco + 1 lb confectioners sugar + 1 TBSP Mirangue powder (can never spell that) + 1 tsp vanilla + 1/2 tsp almond extract + 1/2 tsp butter flavoring and then 2-4 TBSP water depending on the consistency you want.

My guess is that you can do the transfer ahead of time, but only 1-2 days ahead since you wouldn't want your cake to sit around any longer than that anyway. Also, the longer it's on the cake, the bigger the chances of the colors bleeding into your surface icing. Does anyone have any other experience with this?

What is a good length of time to leave the transfer in the freezer. I know I didn't leave my last one in long enough, but I was afraid to leave it too long.

I saw on another thread (can't remember where) that someone suggested using really dark chocolate instead of black for Darth Vadar's mask. They showed a photo and it looked good. But I can't remember where I saw it.....

Thanks. I had seen some on here too, but when I did the search for Darth Vader, it only came up with a fondant one.

I have another question......the transfer is sorft and edible once it's on the cake, right? I think it should be since it's just buttercream frosting. I was thinking of doing a colorflow piece at first, but it's too hard when it dries.

Yes, the BCT is soft, just like the rest of the cake. Cuts up really well. The last half dozen or so cakes I've done have been using this technique.

Did anyone ever come up with a time for leaving the transfer in the freezer. I'm afraid of leaving it too long.

If I recall correctly, the instructions on the BCT that I found on this site suggested leaving the transfer in the freezer for at least an hour or more. It didn't give a max timeframe though. When I did mine, I left it in the freezer for 5+ hours and the only problem I had really was that the wax paper stuck to the plexiglass and I had to wait a few minutes till it thawed a bit. I've heard of someone leaving it in the freezer overnight, without any problems, but I'm not sure I'd take the chance.

I too just tried a BCT for the first time today! I had read the instructions on this site and some others prior so I was prepared and everything turned out pretty good! My only complaint is that I used the Buttery BC listed in the article and it was nice for practice but I don't know about using 3 sticks of butter every time I do this! Also, like crouton mentioned earlier, I too had the problem with the darker specks. What's up with that??? I thought maybe it had to do with humidity (I'm in DFW, TX) or heat...but I'm not sure. I like the recipe that SheilaF suggested, I may try that one! I'm also going to work on getting the transfer thinner b/c I didn't care for it being elevated off the cake. Any suggestions for this?? A picture of my first BCT practice dummy cake is in my profile. Thanks for the great info here![/quote]

[quote="mamafrogcakes"] I'm also going to work on getting the transfer thinner b/c I didn't care for it being elevated off the cake. Any suggestions for this?? </quote>

I would not suggest trying to make it thinner to keep it from being elevated. It will break if it's not thick enough. I freeze mine for several hours too. But I have mine on a cake board, so it absorbs any excess moisture and will not stick to the transfter. What I do is to take the cake pan that I'm using and trace around it on a cake board so I know how big the top of my cake is going to be. I place my art work for the transfer in the middle of that outline. Then, after I totally finish the whole transfer, I outline the edge of the top of the cake (per the line I traced around the pan) and fill in the entire center of that including the transfer. Then press the back gently to settle it into place and freeze the entire thing. I have several cakes in my photos that shows how this looks and I can upload a few more for more examples. I really like how it looks flush, so that's the only way I've done it since I started doing FBCT back in March. HTH's.

mamafrogcakes, SheilaF
Your BCT's look amazing!! I made mine and was wondering how long I could leave it in the freezer.. Well I left mine for 3 days. The problem I had with mine was the black dye that I used in the icing for the outline sort of spreaded into the picture. Although it tastes fine.. mamafrogcakes I'm in DFW too.. HI NEIGHBOR!!!