It was a small design, the Ford Racing Emblem. I piped it onto parchment paper that I had rubbed with shortening...maybe that is what I did wrong? I saw to use wax paper...could the parchment paper be the culprit? I left it flat in the freezer for about 14 hours. Does wax paper make the difference? (I am glad this was a practice run lol)

Or could it be that the surface of the letters wasnt big enough?

For this particular cake, I can do RI if I need to since the emblem covers such a small area of the whole cake. But I may not this technique for future cakes. Thanks for the help!

try doing it with wax paper... parchment paper does not have the glossy wax that you need to pull the paper off the icing.

How big was the actual piece?

I've used mostly wax paper, but you can also use plastic wrap and I don't really see why parchment wouldn't work.

The key to these is to quickly get it from the freezer to the cake and remove the backing before it thaws. The smaller/thinner the piece the faster it will thaw. I've had trouble with small bits of the pictures that stuck out breaking and sticking to the backing. This happens cause it thaws first.

If you do have a small piece I would probably go ahead and outline it a few times in the color that you are doing the cake in. You can also do a 'background' color around the emblem the size of your cake and just use the transfer over the whole top of the cake.