I'm still new to this but I'm not sure why you can't use buttercream icing to do a transfer the way you would a royal transfer? What's with all the doing it in reverse and flipping it? What would happen if I used buttercream and let it set a long time to make sure it dried or even put it in the freezer and peeled it off the paper and applied right side up?
Thanks!

You can - it's called a FBCT (frozen buttercream transfer)

Most times, a smooth finish can't be achieved with buttercream as it can with a flow-in technique using royal or color flow. It gets turned over to expose the smoother finish. If you can achieve a suface finish that is acceptable to you(even star fill-in would be nice if using a small enough tip), then, it can be used just as piped....without inverting it.

you can do it the way you do a royal icing one, but it won't be smooth. that's the reason why you flip it, so you will get the smooth side on your cake.

FBCT

Are easy and fun. Never tried not flipping the picture and just outlining and filling in but it seems like it may not work because buttercream does not flood. The whole point is to be able to push down after you've filled it in to make it smooth.

And it really depends on which way you want your picture to face. If you don't care which direction it's in (meaning the character facing the left or right), then you can leave it as is freeze and flip it onto the cake.

However, if you have words in your picture they will come out backwards.

Not sure I said this the way I wanted to, but HTH a little.

OK thanks! I thought I was having information overload from this site and getting things mixed up! I swear I have to pull myself away when my DH comes home! My kids even like looking at all the cakes LOL!

Oh, sorry- guess I misunderstood....... I print the picture is mirror image, tape to a cake board and pipe on wax paper. freeze and then flip. I have also done the same thing with candy melts but always did the flip thing. (The skater cake in my pictures - grey with red skull, was made using red melts on wax paper).

If I am understanding, you are talking about simply piping BC in the shape of whatever design you want. IF that's the case, you can pipe directly on the cake. I just find this method not as 'clean' as the flip method but whatever works for ya.

If you do it, can you post some pictures? have fun

froggyqueen -

Welcome to CC!

And yes, if you joined at the beginning of April, and you are only on your 4th post, you are suffering from Information Overload. Too much reading in too little time, I'm afraid.

Step back, blink your eyes, take a breath, and have a cup of coffee or tea. And relax - as long as the system doesn't crash, all the information will still be here tomorrow, and the next day.

And I'm darn glad to see a newbie taking the time to read through the articles and archives before asking questions!

Theresa