I made a FBCT b-day cake for my dd's birthday, and when I placed the transfer on the cake, (my first FBCT) it cracked a little because it didn't sit flush on the icing. I tried piping the background color around the transfer to give it more support, but that got a little messy-looking. Every place I tried to smooth it, the black border around the transfer rubbed off. Any ideas to help the transfer not crack, or sit more flush on the cake, or to smooth the icing (which was not a crusting buttercream)?

Welcome to CC! In my efforts of fbct, I have found that I must do them on A CRUSTING BC, or they do not work for me. JMO.

I used a recipe off of a forum I was following and it worked out really nice. I do not think that I got mine completely flat, but it did not crack. (It is the 49er cake in my photos) I am going to look for the link and post it. The process worked really great and loved it. I am going to do another one today.

okay, I can not find the link, but here is the recipe that I used and had no problems with bleeding, sticking or cracking. I got it from somewhere on CC, but do not know who, but thanks!!!

1/2 cup Crisco shortening
1/2 cup butter, softened, I use salted
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract, I used the pure brown, but you will get an ivory tinge to your icing so you can switch to clear (the brown really does not affect any colouring except your white will be more of an ivory, but for eyeballs etc. it isn't noticable)
2 cups of sifted before you measure it out, icing (powdered) sugar
No other liquid and you don't need to dip your spatula in hot water or any of that stuff!
Blend butter on low until softened. Add Criso and continue on low. Add vanilla and continue on low. Add icing sugar, one cup at a time and continue on low until well incorporated. Then colour and apply.

I've done alot of fbct and am constantly learning better technique especially on CC. I don't know if this will help you but when I did a fbct a few weeks ago, some didn't stick to cake and I had a crack. Since the cake was for the next day I didn't have time to do anther one so I just filled in all the colors on the transfer by hand. It no longer had that nice smooth finish but a nice raised look instead but no more cracks and no more missing pieces. When I tried once to just "fix it" it was a disaster and I just made it worse.

I agree using them on a crusting BC works best! Gotta work fast with those fbct too!!

HTH!

Thanks for the ideas. Normally I do make a crusting buttercream, but for this cake, I followed the instructions in the article on CC, and used the recommended recipe. I'm sure that works really well for some, but for whatever reason, I didn't have good luck with it. Probably because I'm just not used to it. Oh well, the girls loved the cake anyway! Guess I'll just have to keep practicing!!