I am making a harley davidson cake and am needing to transfer the image(not really wanting to free hand it thats for sure). I learned in my wilton course I class how to transfer with piping gel and they didnt have us color it, it was basically for the outline. Well I was talking to a friend that has done cakes for a long time and she was saying I needed to color it or mix it with my icing that was already colored. So I need help!!!!! So here is what I am asking: How do I do it without it being backwards? Turn it over and do it from the back of the pattern so when I put it on the cake it will be right? Also what is the best technique for this other than the buttercream transfer. Any advice would be greatly appreciate. I am getting kinda stressed here Thank you soooo very much in advance.

I do the transfer a lot. I usually trace the picture with a black sharpie so when I turn it over, it is easier to trace with the piping gel.
I usually tint the piping gel black. Then once it is on the cake, outline it again.
Then fill the picture in with colored buttercream icing. I use star tips and make individual stars or a round tip and zig zag back and forth until it is filled in.
I hope this helps you out. Good luck!

P.S. I stink at writing on cakes, so I do the same for the writing...print out something on Word in whatever font you like, trace it, copy it backwards and flip it onto your cake.

omgosh THANK YOu. That is what I was wanting to do in the first place was with the sharpie. Nobody understood what I was talking about glad you are on the same page withe me. And as for the writing I have not thought about that with WORD i just thought what I had was what I had haha. Thank you again. You made me feel a world better about what I wanted to do. I am new to the decorating world and she was talking to high up for me lol.

So, when I was doing my Hannah Montana cake I couldn't get the logo to transfer onto the cake the way I wanted it to and I was running out of time. So I decided that I was going to use royal icing and pipe it on the back side of my template and I was hoping by some miracle that it would jump from the template onto my cake! haha - but what happened was even better and will be the new way that I do transfers (if I have RI made).

When I layed the template on the cake with the RI side down and the RI mostly dry - it left a PERFECT impression into my buttercream for me to follow!!

I have never had luck with the piping gel transfer - but that could totally be user error!! haha

I am totally lost with the royal icing. Not really sure what it is and how to make it. Also did you let it almost dry before laying on the cake or you left the template on the cake until it was almost dried then removed it? Thank you so much for your help ladies. I knew I could count on the CC world

I've done a few piping gel transfers, but I would usually end of frustrated, because part of it would be missing, or would smudge too much, and I'd have to go back and freehand it anyway... It's a one shot thing, too. I just recently did a "Maxine" cake, and Kmoores helped me so much. She told me to just do my transfer with black icing with maybe a tad of piping gel in it. I traced my picture/design with a sharpie on parchment paper, then flipped it over. I then traced it with tip 3 black icing, and then placed it carefully on my cake. I took a toothpick and traced over every line. BE SURE TO LIFT THE PARCHMENT PAPER STRAIGHT UP... Try not to "roll" it off. It may smudge or take off some of your outline. Once I lifted it, I was amazed! A perfect outline was left for me to fill in. I didn't even have to go back and retrace it with more black icing. This will definitely be the way I do transfers from now on. No more tinted piping gel for me! HTH. Good luck!

The piping gel seemed to be too hard to see on some cakes. The colored icing is much easier, unless I opt to trace the pic then cover it with waxed paper and use color flow. I used this when I need animals for my VBS cake. Good luck with your decorating. I am fairly knew too and CC is a great help.

I let the royal icing mostly dry on the back of the template then put it on the cake and pressed very lightly on it and it left a perfect impression on the buttercream.

you can find great royal icing recipes in the recipes section.