Transfer Image To Fondant?

Decorating By kimbordeaux Updated 7 Oct 2013 , 8:32pm by mfeagan

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kimbordeaux Posted 7 Sep 2009 , 12:33am
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I am making a Clemson Tiger cake. For those who don't know, its a college in SC. Anyway, here is my design idea... 2-3 tier cake covered in orange fondant (cake shape probably round). I want the bottom tiers and the sides of top tier to have hand painted black tiger stripes. Here is the problem. I also do pencil/charcoal drawings and I have a tiger face that I've drawn and I want that image hand painted on the top of top tier. My problem is I can't redraw image w/out making any mistakes (that's why I do my artwork in pencil, lol) so I really need a way to transfer a copy of the outline of drawing onto cake before I start painting. I don't want to do a buttercream transfer. I want the image painted on. Also don't want one of those edible photo transfers. I just need to be able to have the outline of my drawing on cake and then I can finish painting. Any ideas?
LL

6 replies
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enoid Posted 7 Sep 2009 , 12:49am
post #2 of 7

You could use the pin prick technique to transfer the design onto the cake then paint it. HTH

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kimbordeaux Posted 8 Sep 2009 , 2:13am
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Figured out how to transfer outline to fondant. I read that small amounts of pencil are not harmful. So I made a copy of original drawing and traced the outline of drawing with a pencil. I flipped drawing over onto fondant and lightly pressed down on the areas I wanted transfered with a pencil. When the drawing is lifted the outline I traced on front of paper has been transfered to fondant. I then painted the drawing using the light transfer as a reference. Attached picture is of the painting I did from transfered outline. This was just for practice before I did the real thing on cake so it was painted on a fondant covered cake pan.
LL

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mwest110 Posted 8 Sep 2009 , 2:26am
post #4 of 7

That turned out great!

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raystreats Posted 7 Oct 2013 , 12:31pm
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I have a quick question to the original poster. When you say that you just traced the picture and then flipped it over and lightly pressed where you wanted the outline to be, was that it? did the fondant have to be moist at all for the transfer to show up? did you have to make the outline on the picture darker then you normally would have? did you use a certain pencil or just a regular pencil? sorry for all the questions, i love this idea and would love to be able to use it in the future so i just want to make sure i am going to do it right so i dont screw up any fondant lol!

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NcLeora Posted 7 Oct 2013 , 3:20pm
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I'm with raystreats...I just tried this technique on Saturday and it so did not work for me.  I traced the outline of what I wanted and lightly but firmly pressed my design onto the cake (the top of an 8" round).  Maybe a little line here and there, but nowhere near helpful enough.  Maybe some Crisco first?  I'm not sure, I'm interested to see what the OP has to say about her prep space, as it turned out so lovely!

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mfeagan Posted 7 Oct 2013 , 8:32pm
post #7 of 7

If you go to Craftsy.com and look at the cake decorating videos, there is a tutorial on hand painting on cakes. I got the class for free. I think it's a starter class that anyone can get for free. Extremely helpful!

 

The instructor shows how to do the pencil transfer. You can trace it onto parchment paper with a pencil, flip that pencil side onto the fondant and then you trace over it. It will leave an outline for you to paint in. She explains about pencil on fondant and consuming it. It's non-toxic, so the small amount ingested is not going to hurt anyone at all. 

 

I would highly recommend watching some of those videos! I have been able to broaden my cake horizons! 

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