Does anyone have this problem with their frozen BCT????
I make sure my waxed paper is wrinkle free and sitting flat on the plexiglass. After the transfer is done, everything looks great, but after I freeze it and am ready to flip it out onto my cake, I notice that the waxed paper has a few wrinkles in it and therefore my transfer has a wavy look to it.
Is there something I'm doing wrong???
I use the half butter/half crisco and milk recipe.

I should also say that it isn't really very noticable, but I'm sort of a perfectionist and my own worst critic, so it drives me absolutely nuts!!

Please help!!

Yes, I do tape it down to the plexiglass

I wonder if it's the milk in the recipe. I can't say for sure because my recipe contains no milk or water. I'm just guessing. Is there anyone else out there that uses water or milk in their BCT icing with this problem?

I know it's not the butter.

I seem to always have wrinkles or worm like features on my BCT. Someone once said to use a paint brush to pull out all the lines. Well I do this.. I let it unthaw a few mins. then I go over it with a paint brush... It works great for me! Just a thought.. And yes I add milk to mine..

I can think of two things--

Maybe your buttercream is a bit too thin. Since you use milk, maybe you should use a bit thicker consistency buttercream.

The other thing is that maybe your wax paper is not as heavy duty as it should be. I'm a firm believer in buying store brand items, but I have found when it comes to wax paper, the name brands are better. They seem to use a heavier weight paper and feel a bit waxier. If you do use a specific name brand, trying switching to another and see what happens.

That's about all I can offer. Good luck!

Hello,

In my opinion I think that using wax paper is what is causing the problem. I use parchment paper instead because it does not have that waxy material that can be left behind on your BCT. I think when you freeze the BCT a bit of the waxy material remains on the icing giving the appearance of the problem you are having, try parchment instead.

Thanks for all the good advice.
I didn't mean those wormy looking lines, I used to have that problem because my icing wasn't thin enough.

I think Cookieman hit it on the nose. That was what I suspected. I bought a brand name waxed paper last night to try it again for an order either this Sat. or next.
The last time I ran out of waxed paper, I sent my husband to the store and he brought home a store brand that I've never used before.

sgirvan, you said you use parchment. Can you still see through it when you look at it from under the plexiglass? I do that often to make sure I don't miss any spots and to make sure there aren't any of those wormy lines.

I'll definitely try changing my waxed paper to a better quality.
Thanks again!! You guys are great!!

I never make mine on plexi-glass. I make mine on a wooden cutting board. Once you get more confident, you will be able to also (make it without looking). I think the parchment is a grand idea!!

OK< if you use parchment paper how do you see the image you want on the cake? At least wax paper is "clear".
I have been told I am an artist in the midst, but I only draw stuff when I have something special to do (like painting on my kids walls here) but when it comes to cakes I want the picture to be great and I dont think I can "imagine" the right picture to put on parchment.... does that make since? Wax i can see through and do fine, but parchment I would worry.

I would imagine you could see through it if you traced over the picture with marker.

Any special hints?

Ok, this is what I do and it works great every time. I take my image and place a piece of parchment over top and trace with a felt marker (permanent) I then flip it over and I can see the image through the other side and I start doing my BCT. Because I do it this way, I don't have to worry about reversing images because it is backwards when I do the transfer and then I flip it on to the cake and it looks the correct way.

Shayla