new to cake decorating. a friend asked me to draw a image of mickey mouse onto a cake but there has got to be an easier more full proof way of doing this than free hand. any advice is welcomed. thanks

There are several ways to do this. One is to take your image and outline it with piping gel, turn it over onto the surface of the cake and press lightly. You can see the gel faintly and it will be enough of a guide to outline with. This works on fondant, buttercream and whipped cream, although the image is reversed. Another way, which works on fondant, is to fill the back of the image with a very soft pencil - I usually try to use a 6B. Then place the image face up on the fondant and trace the outlines. The third way is to place the image face up on the surface (and this works for basically any surface) and prick the outlines with a straight pin. This will leave tiny holes in the buttercream, ganache, whipped cream or fondant that can be used as a guide. Hope you can use one of these!

is piping gel something I can make or is it a product that is sold in stores? I have piped with buttercream and royal icing but never with piping gel

you can d a frozen buttercream transfer.. there is a HOW TO here on CC.. I followed it to the T and my first FBCT came out great!

You can purchase it a Michaels or any craft store that carry Wilton products, or sometimes in grocery stores they carry the little squeeze tubes of the colored stuff. i have a friend that does this piping gel method that i taught her. She has some stuff up here i will look her up so you can see the way its done. as far at the reverse image is concern if you to not want that to happen just put your mickey mouse image up in the window and trace over the back side of it. of course it will have to be blank on the other side. LOL there goes you problem with the reverse image. now tape the image down to a nice smooth work surface and then tape a piece of wax paper over the image this is what you will use to pipe the gel onto. You may need to practice a couple of times. Use a color that is light, no color or something in the color you are using in the butter cream so you can not see it later. now pick up the image carefully and flip it over and lay it on a cold cake be careful not to move it around or you may have a mess to clean up. now gently take your finger and run it along the gel out line. once every line has been done you can now pipe over the outline with colored butter cream. then just fill in the areas. let me go get a link to her cakes.

Ok here is one of her cakes:
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?
I have done the pin one but i have a hard time see the little pin holes in the white frosting. I think its the glare off of the lights. but i am sure this method will work as well.
name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=27991

There is a recipe on here for piping gel or you can purchase it.

Oh, momvarden, I can't see the cake! I get a message that says "This module not active". Good point about tracing the image in reverse. Why don't I ever think of these things?

oh darn it worked when i posted it.

http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1332619
i will try and do it again, with a different pic.

ok if you can not get it her user name is augustlm. I will give you are really great way to see how its done.

The easiest way to get a good image is a frozen buttercream transfer. Once you've made your first one, its gets way easier.
Heres a link on how to make a transfer from Tracy on SDs.

http://www.sdbytracy.com/frozbutter.htm

Heres one of my frozen transfers just to give you an idea.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/joyfullcakes/1689689738/sizes/o/

HTH

Thanks, momvarden, it came up just fine this time. I'd actually saved that image some time ago when I was making a Diego cake for a friend's three-year old!

joyfull4444, I love both of those! It looks like both of them are lifted a little bit off the cake surface. Are they, or is this just an optical illusion (or my failing eyesight)? Whatever's going on, they both really pop!

[joyfull4444, I love both of those! It looks like both of them are lifted a little bit off the cake surface. Are they, or is this just an optical illusion (or my failing eyesight)? Whatever's going on, they both really pop![/quote]

Nope, no optical illusion. I like my transfers to stand out so I make them fairly thick. Helps me with breakage too. Sometimes thinner transfers, especially arms or legs, will break when you flip them onto the cake. That, can be very annoying!

joyfull, i love both of those, as well i don't do very many buttercream transfers, i might have to start doing them, again. Thank you for posting them.