I am a 1st time poster and have to start off saying how inspiring this board and its members are! I have seen some of the most unique, artistic, magical creations on this site. I hope to be half as good one day!

My husband's 30th birthday is this Saturday and I am throwing him a surprise Star Wars themed birthday party. I would like to make him a Darth Vader cake using the FBCT (frozen buttercream transfer) method I have seen on this site. I would be baking a chocolate 12in round cake (3) layers with vanilla buttercream icing.

Do you experts think A. My idea is realistic, since I am a novice decorator and have never done a FBCT? B. Will a 12 in round cake that is 3 layers feed 25 people?

I have attached the picture of DarthVader I want to use. I was thinking of outlining him in gray and black and using luster dust to cover the whole cake. Does that sound manageable and realistic to start on a Friday night and complete by Saturday morning? I didn't feel like it would be "crazy hard", but, what do I know!!

Thank you in advance for any help!

I would like input- am I in over my head?

They would be some thiiiin slices. Even if you look at 'wedding' slices for an 8" round, it serves 15 people.

As for the FBCT, that's a pretty simple design, and you should ahve no problem.. HOWEVER you may be best off freehanding it, or doing pin prick, since and FBCT should be frozen for quite awhile before being transferred to a cake. I'm not sure if you want to be rushing around with transferring and bordering, luster dusting etc the next morning.

I'm sorry. 12" round should be sufficient for 25 people, especially 3 layers. I misread that part, apologies!

I am still new at cake decorating myself,but in my opion,Yes your cake will feed 25 people and no I don't think you are over your head.There is a fost time for everything.It may not look the best,but you could also suprise yourself and it could turn out great!Are you set on a FBCT,I actually like chocolate transfers better.

Well, first, a 12 inch round, 3 layer cake would be quite large. How high are your layers going to be? I think I would make it two layers myself, each about 1 1/2 to 2 inches high. According to my chart, that would feed 30 but those would be large slices.

As for the FCBT. Since you don't have much time, just try to out. The worst thing that can happen is the FCBT doesn't work or come out right and then you have a nice plain cake to serve. I think the Darth Vader is pretty simple and probably would not be too hard for you to do.

Best of luck to you. Post a link here when it's finished and show us a picture.

Thank you both for your input. I am not set on FBCT, I would entertain chocolate, for some reason that just seemed more intimidating to me, lol!

I am not familiar with the pin prick method, will have to research that one on here.

I did a FBCT with Yoda, its in my pictures. But I did a cupcake cake and it feeds quite a few, there is not cutting involved and the shape of course is different depending on how you put your cupcakes in. I have quite a few parents requesting cupcake cakes just because its so much easier

A FBCT will be ready to use after about an hour. You could even make it a day ahead if you can keep your hubby from finding it. You could do the FBCT while the cake is baking and cooling. By the time you ice the cake It would be ready. Don't be worried they are relatively easy.

I think doing that as a FBCT would be a very good choice!

The design is fairly simple. You only have to pipe one color, although you'll have to work a bit to get black (do you know a good technique for that? Maybe start with dark cocoa in your buttercream, add black, and let the icing sit...maybe even overnight). I have 2 small FBCT in my freezer now and I don't think anyone would guess what they are. I did the FBCT on waxed paper, with plenty of paper to spare. I put them in the freezer on an acrylic cuttingboard. After they had frozen well, I folded the waxed paper over the top and slid them in a big baggie and put them back in the freezer.

Another thing is that once you finish the transfer, if you are not happy with the look, you can just not use it. No harm done. You can redo it at that point, or just skip it. As a newbie, I like that option instead of having a mess on my cake that I need to scrape off and begin again.

I've done several small transfers and I like doing them!

I've done 3 FBCTs and I love them! Its a really easy way to decorate the cake. That pic doesn't have a lot of detail so it shouldn't be that difficult. I would start with the white portions using a #1 tip, then fill in the black and outline in black. When that's complete, pipe over the whole thing in the color of the icing on the cake and smooth it with a spatula. This helps fill in any holes and helps it to not lift up when you take the paper off (I use parchment).

Here's the first one I did:
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1206182

The second:
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1210331

And the last one:
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1214635

Oh, and make sure to save your colors just in case you need to fill in any spots. It takes about an hour to set but I've left them in the freezer overnight. Have fun with it!!!

im going to jump in here and ask how do you apply the FBCT to your cake to make sure its completely smooth? do you ice the cake first anmd then apply? Ibe had problems incorporating my images with a smooth finish.
thanks and good luck with your cake!

I am a complete novice compared to everyone else here, but I recently tried out the FBCT and LOVED it! Good luck! You'll do great!

xstitcher, i did pipe a star border aroung the felix the cat image because the edges weren't very strong (I was cutting corners and didn't cover it with frosting.)

whimsy_chick, it depends on what else you need to do to the cake. I normally just use PhotoBucket to reverse my images (so the words will come out the right way), then Word to resize it. Just because it will let me use inches instead of pixels. I would say anywhere from 8 to 10 inches. You can print it out and hold it up to the pan to get a visual.

I have not had a problem with the black lines I used for tracing my pattern bleeding into the icing. Just use the same bc recipe for the transfer as you are for your cake, that way the icing edgeing you put on last will match your cake icing exactly.

Stop over thinking it. You'll be suprised at how easy it really is.

Butter cream transfer are not so hard, I just did my first one 3 weeks ago, and I happened to pick a very detail one, it took me about 4hrs to do, but I fell in love with bct.

Here it is, also your 12 inch cake should feed 25, according to Wiltons cake servings a 10 inch 3" high should feed 38.

http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1214382

Good luck!

Lomikesa

thanks! I think I couldnt get my fbct smooth the first time because my icing was too thin and it did not freeze to a hard consistency, even though I left it over night, so I was not able to push it into the cake and the edges were rough and very visible, I guess I should do my fbct with medium consistency icing?
Thanks for all the tips!!
D

hi , i haven't read the entire post but if your edges aren't what you want thats ok i personally just make a mini border with tip 18 around the entire thing , and also if the fbct has like gaps between the fbct and the icing you cans just fill it in with the same tip then make the border around it...... i myself did have a problem one time with the black fadeing into the white but i just put a border around that and no one seemed to notice and plus it was like the middle of august so it was very hot and humid outside.. GL

When I do my FBCT, Sometime I let them freeze solid, and other times a good 15-20mins is enough time (pic added) This is by far my favorite one so far, I did it in 15mins . I have others on my website. You will be fine, thats a pretty easy one. O yeah, I never add a border to my FBCT.. Good luck

I just attempted my very first FBCT of Lightning Mcqueen. The actual process of making it was not hard at all. I put it in the freezer for about two hours but then when I went to put it on my cake, only the front half of the car came off the paper nicely, and the rear end stuck to the paper so I had to freehand the back end of the car. My dh said you couldn't tell, but the icing to me looked completely different from the front to rear. I am not sure why I had problems, just cause that's my luck I would guess!!

I've had problems sometimes too, getting mine to freeze, until I noticed something. You know the "great" self defrosting freezers? Well, they cycle throught the freezing process and if I put mine in when I hear the freezer cooling (and can feel it inside) then I'm fine. Otherwise, they don't get very "frozen".