I did my second attempt today. Not too impressed. The picture got smudged when i put the extra icing on the back. And the face details got a little mushy. My first try, you could see the lines where i filled it in. i just didnt look good. I just cant get it right , help!

I have problems too. I spent soooo much time doing a Dora and Zoe figure, only to end up disappointed with the "smushed" look (as you described). I peeled off the parch. paper and tried to "re-do" it right-side-up. Maybe look at my Dora/Zoe cake to see what I mean.

Another direction I went was this...I did one by building from the bottom up. So, I did not use the reverse image..I used it the "right way". Laid it down on the surface, put the parch paper over it, and just beganlayering the shape. See my Barnyard Cake. This method proved more successful. The final image was cuter and appeared more lively. You have to be very careful handling them.

Either way you go, it doesn't seem to be a perfect science. Following Squirley's recipe for the 50/50 BC seemed to help too. (I believe she recommended using at least 50% shortening). The recipe is posted (if you haven't tried it already).

I also had trouble with my parchment paper buckling, thus causing the image to warp. No one really had any advice for it. BE CAREFUL with black. It runs everywhere, especially if you put the image on whipped cream icing!!!

good luck
Pam

I just did my first fbct this weekend for my daughter and I can't wait to do more. I learned a few things while doing it. I have "lines" in mine too in the bigger areas where I wasn't as careful about filling in. In the smaller areas I would squeeze out the icing and let it puddle up and then kind of push it out towards the lines. This filled in nicely without any lines showing. I used a toothpick to push the icing into the tighter corners. When I filled in the bigger areas I laid the icing down in a more side to side motion letting it fall in and that resulted in some lines showing when I turned it over on the cake.

After I was done filling in areas I dabbed my finger in powdered suger and patted down the icing instead. It worked well and I didn't worry about smearing the image because I wasn't really moving anything around. After that I added the extra icing and kind of smeared that around and it didn't ruin my image. I used the crusting cream cheese recipe, but I also used the premade wilton black for the edges and the premade green and yellow because I needed only a tiny amount. It all came out no problem. I did mix some piping gel in with my black, but the green and yellow came straight out of the tube.

I'm still working on cropping and resizing my picture of my fbct.

Jlh - I looked at your 2 cakes, and i really like the barnyard one better, i think im just going to give up on the who fbct thing. Your right about the black , poohs face didnt look good at all. I was able to fix it a little bit.

Here a pic of the final product...

You might try doing a chocolate transfer instead of an fbct. Squirrelly suggested it in another thread. The bingo card in my pics is a fbct and the deer & eagle are chocolate transfers. You might find them easier like I did.

I thought you were suppose to use wax paper instead of parchment paper. I printed out these instructions and it says wax.

http://www.cakecentral.com/article12-How-To-Create-a-Frozen-Buttercream-Transfer.html

I will be watching this post because I have to do one for Mother's Day! Thanks.

~Josie

I did use wax paper, i worked fine. It peeled right off the transfer great. Its just the actual smoothing that i find difficult. I dont know how to do the chocolate transfer. Do you use white chocolate?

I did not mean you specifically, I saw it on a post above and just posted without quoting. I believe there is a recipe in the recipe section for the chocolate transfer. If not do a Google or MSN search or whatever you use. Good luck!

I hope I don't have trouble when I do mine soon.

~Josie

Oh i know. i was just letting you know , that yes i do think you are soppose to use wax paper since you will be doing one soon too. I do recommend doing a test trial first though, these things are not easy to get to look right. It may just be me being a perfectionist though, i dont know, lol Good luck with it!

It would bother me too if it does not look right. I was just thinking about getting a printer to go ahead and eliminate the FBCT step. LOL. I will get one at a later time. But thanks for Good lucking me. LOL. I will probably need it. LOL.

~Josie