Hey everyone

I am making a birthday cake for my friend next week and I am wanting to make it Seattle Sounders (Soccer team) themed. I am pretty new at decorating so I don't want to try anything TOO crazy and don't really want to use fondant.

-I am doing a buttercream transfer of the team's logo for the top of a round cake.
-His favorite flavors of cake are carrot cake, and lemon cake w/ lemon BC.
-I am wanting to do this design: http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2113887
(w/o flower) alternating lime green and blue (sounders colors) so I am thinking a buttercream would be best?

I know that carrot cake's best friend is cream cheese icing but I don't know how easy it is to decorate with besides piping on a cupcake, which is easy.

-Does plain buttercream go well with carrot cake?
-Should the 2 flavors be different sized tiers or should I stack both flavors on top of one another?
-Should I fill with BC or make a lemon BC or curd filling for the lemon layer and cream cheese for the carrot cake layer and ice the whole thing in BC?

Sorry this is long, and thanks for your help! I made a poll to make it easier!

I've never tried it as I do not like carrot cake, but my stepdad has always enjoyed his carrot cake with regular bc; however, he does like it best with cream cheese icing.

Could you try a crusting cream cheese icing? I used Edna De La Cruz's crusting cream cheese icing and my stepdad absolutely raved about it (I don't really know anyone else that likes carrot cake, so I'm going off his word).

I did try the crusting cream cheese icing, and I thought it was good and it worked well with decorating.

For the tiers, I think it depends on the total look that you want to achieve as far as different or same tier sizes (I've not done much with tiers and/or different icing flavors, so I'm not sure if I'm the best to advise on that).

I guess my question is how much cake do you need? I would not do a layer of carrot cake and lemon cake on the same cake tier. The flavors are not complimentary. So your option is to make 2 different cakes. You can either decorate and serve them side by side or stack them to make a tiered cake - something you may not want to take on just yet if you're new). The other option is just pick 1 flavor and go from there. If you have limited time I say pick one flavor but if you have time to play with the idea of doing both flavors, I'm always up for a cake challenge.

The design you displayed will do fine with a cream cheese frosting. Cream cheese frosting does get softer as it gets warmer so sometimes you have to throw your piping bag in the fridge for a few minutes to get it to thicken back up. If it was a more intricate piping design, then I would be concerned. Just a reminder cream cheese frosting requires refrigeration.

Hopefully someone else can answer this question. Can you do a frozen buttercream transfer with cream cheese frosting? I don't generally do transfers and I don't normally work with cream cheese frosting so it is really just a curiousity question on my end.

I think plain buttercream is fine with carrott cake. You can also add dry instant pudding to buttercream. If you add the cheesecake flavor, you might be able to simulate a cream cheese buttercream instead of a true cream cheese frosting.

Here is a thread on pudding in buttercream.
http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=711079&postdays=0&postorder=asc&&start=0

Why don't you do a cream cheese filling for the carrot cake and then mix some lemon curd in with the cream cheese to fill your lemon cake. Then frost the whole thing with your favorite BC recipe. I would make your smaller tier carrot and then do lemon for the other tier. Believe me people love lemon cake. It's pretty much the only cake I've been baking for the past three months, LOL.

there is a great carrot cake recipe on here ( I'm not a fan either but I actually like this one) I've tweaked it a little and even my kids love it!! if you look up MOIST CARROT CAKE the one with the pineapple and coconut in it you will find it!! if you want to try it with my little tweaks just pm me.
Kat

Yes I have done that before. I have also mixed lemon curd in with regular buttercream and it's equally delicious.

Good luck!