I tried a frozen buttercream transfer for the first time a couple of weeks ago and liked the way it came out...but I had a few problems with it. I have to do another one next weekend and was looking for some suggestions to make it better.

1. How do I make the edges of the transfer look neat? When I put it on the cake it looked a little sloppy so I tried to smooth the edges into the cake and it didn't work too well.

2. It all peeled away smoothly except for my black frosting... any ideas why?

Here is the link to the cake I did the transfer on. Any suggestions or comments on how to improve would be greatly appreciated!

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_1302203.html

That is a really cute cake are the dots fondant? As for you FBCT:
Make sure the edges are thick enough I find if you pipe it in too thin they tend to look frayed and sloppy
The black frosting-did you use a ready made one? Most often it doesnt peel away if it was too dry to begin with.
Good luck!

Very cute picture. Here are some things I have learned with FBCT.
* The thicker the better.
* To make a smooth edge, trim the picture with a straight edge while still frozen. Also, I usually use the base color to edge the picture to help finish it off. (white frosted cake, white edged picture)
* To make black, use a chocolate BC and tint it black. Too much colorig will affect the consistency of the frosting. (maybe why it stuck), plus makes it taste better.
* If you have a large image, figure a way to make several smaller images to create the larger one. Larger images tend to thaw in the middle by the time you get there. If you can not make smaller images, you may have to refreeze the image while on the cake, to help remove the wax paper.
* The consistency of the BC should be almost a liquid for better filling. I nuke mine for a couple of seconds before I use it. Helps to remove any extra lines and bubbles.
* IF after all is said and done, and the image does stick to the paper, you can finish the picture with piping and smooth it after slightly crusting.

My 2c worth

When I do a FBCT I do the entire top of the cake, then there are no seams! I take a cake board the size of the cake, draw and fill in my picture, then when I am done I pipe white buttercream (or whatever color the rest of the cake is going to be) around the image and out to the edges of the board. Once this goes onto the cake, the border will cover up the seam. I think I have at least one in my photos.

Here is a link with pictures to show you what I mean:
http://www.soggycheerios.com/archives/197

HTH

I usually end up piping a border around it later. You can see this on both of my Harley cakes in my photos.

Oh, and I didn't mention, I ice the side of the cake as normal but I only crumb coat the top of the cake. If you have any questions feel free to PM me.

Thanks for the tips! I'm working on it now so wish me luck

Good Luck...how did it go?

I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong... my guess is it just must be my buttercream for what ever reasons, but it kept sticking to the wax paper! I ended up doing fondant figures instead which came out really cute.

Here's the cake I did:
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_1308049.html

Anyway, is there a specific buttercream recipe that is best to use for a transfer?

I keep my FBCT in the freezer until I am ready to put it on the cake, but I make sure that it is in the freezer for at least 5 hours. I really like to leave it in there over night. As soon as it comes out of the freezer, it goes on the cake and I take the waxed paper off right away. The Buttercream recipe I use is 1/2 Cup Butter, 1/2 Cup shortening, 2 LB powdered sugar.