My son wants a Canadian flag cupcake cake for his birthday tomorrow (don't ask, he just really, really enjoyed our trip to Niagara Falls).  Anyway, I'm nervous about making the striped part of the flag (red - white - red).  Are there any tricks to making crisp, straight lines without letting the red bleed onto the white?  I thought about covering the entire base in white and then piping the red on, but I don't want the elevation to be different between sections.  Does that make sense?

Thanks for any and all suggestions!

Katie

You can do a butter cream transfer of a Canadian flag. Here is a link below showing how to do a transfer with butter cream. I once did one of a ninja turtle and it turned out pretty good.  This is just an easy way to do one that even a beginner can do easily. If you use buttercream, the colors should not bleed. Good luck!! I am sure there will be others here who may have better ideas than me.

Thanks!  I'll definitely do a bc transfer for the maple leaf, but I don't think I want to make the entire top a transfer. Maybe I could do the middle white section with the leaf and then just place it on top of the red?  I think that might work.

Thanks again!

Maybe you can modify this awesome technique to work for you: http://sweetnessandbite.com/2013/10/perfect-buttercream-stripes-part-two/

Actually, buttercream does bleed, especially with a frozen transfer technique due to condensation. I've done this myself, so I know. My only advice to offer would be to let one of the colors crust and then apply the other color. 

I agree with Flourpots and FioreCakes. That's what I did for the stripes on this cake.

When I did the butter cream transfer, I had white icing on top of cake but my ninja turtle transfer was blue and red. Mine did not bleed at all.Once it was frozen and I put on cake I had no issues.  Maybe it depends on your icing or maybe I was just lucky. I have seen many people use transfers with no bleeding problems. Maybe their way will work better. I am not an expert so I am learning from others. Good luck and post a picture. 

Yes but she will have white and red stripes next to each other in her transfer. The red piped directly next to the white without waiting for one of them to crust may bleed regardless of freezing or not. You are talking about them not bleeding onto the white on the cake…I think she wants the white and the red to be next to each other and not two different dimensions. I will say though, the only color I have trouble with bleeding is black…it bleeds pink! So you may actually be fine just piping on the white…waiting a bit and then piping the red. With things like this, you really never know until you try it with your icing, in your environment. 

Thanks everyone!  I actually had success icing the flag white, then applying really thin red color blocks using the waxed paper technique described in the tutorial (thanks Flourpots!).  It worked like a charm with a nice crisp line and no bleeding!  I did an easy bc transfer for the leaf.  I guess we need to move from VA to Canada now!  Not my best work, but good enough for kindergarten!

I'll try to attach a picture.

file://localhost/Users/kathryn/Desktop/photo%20copy.JPG

AYou're welcome!

(The picture link doesn't work)