I am doing an Elmo cake for Friday and want some opinions on how to approach this. First off, I can't free-hand anything so that is out of the question as an option!

I have the image that I want to use on the cake and thought about doing a FBCT (which I have never done before) but I do not want a flat look. I want to be able to use the grass tip to make Elmo's fur and I want to have the bulging eyes and nose.

Is there a modified FBCT that I can do to just transfer the outline to the cake? I've heard of the pinprick method, but that sounds like it could be tedious and dangerous with my unsteady hands!

Any suggestions or words of encouragement would be much appreciated.

Since you want to make him look furry, then you don't have to worry about what the FBCT will look like if you use it as your guide. Make and fbct of Elmo and position it on the cake. Then, use a smaller star tip, like a 13 or 14 and use that to make him look furry. You can do longer pull out stars on him (see in my pics of the baby's face with the hat -- the ball on top looks furry this way). The grass tip might work, but it wouldn't be my first choice. If you like it and can get it to work for you though, then go for it! You can make a couple of mounds of white for his eyes and flatten them with a little cornstarch on our finger.

So, in effect, you'll use the fbct as your guide and completely cover it over. Consider beforehand whether you want to put the eyes on first and do the fur around them or place the eyes on the fur after you're finished.

I've done a lot of fbct's, so if you need any help, just let me know either here or in a pm, and I'll tell you all I can. I'm sure your cake will turn out great!

S.

Thanks Sonoma for all the great advice.....

So to clarify, should I use the colors I am going to use on the FBCT or should I do the outline and then only use my background color to fill in and then use the colors I want? I hope that made sense - I shouldn't be up this late trying to sound intelligent!

And thanks about the eyes suggestion and star tip. I might use marshmellows for the eyes and nose - just have to see what it looks like once I get into it!

Thanks again - you may be hearing back from me again tomorrow once I start the process! I can never have enough information..........

What about using a piping gel transfer to put the image in the cake for you, and that way you can outline and fill in how you want to?

Just place your image under some wax paper and pipe over the lines using piping gel. Flip the piece of wax paper over on to your cake and lightly smooth over the lines. When you remove the wax paper the piping gel will be on your cake to give you guidelines.

You can also do that with royal icing and a piece of plexi glass or glass. Let it dry then press it into the icing. This would leave an indented outline for you.

I would recommend the gel transfer also. I also suggest tinting your piping gel a color so you can see it easier. Maybe with red coloring? It doesn't have to be bright red b/c it will be covered up, but if you get some color in there you don't have to fight it so much to see.

Then once it is on the cake use the grass tip to add the fur.

thanks everyone for the help! I ended up doing the FBCT and made it too thick so I ended up having to fill in the top with more icing after the fact so it would all blend so it wasn't the smoothest of buttercream. For future reference, are you supposed to add very thin layers to keep it flat? I guess I was just scared to press too much also putting the final color on the back.

But overall it was a pretty good experience. I have to practice writing backwards as you can tell in my street sign. I think that was the toughest part.

Here is the finished product.......

thanks again for everything!

I think it turned out great! It's a very cute cake. Good job!