Frozen Buttercream Transfer

Aura and Rowan were having a combined birthday party this year, and they both love Transformers. So, ever the pesky friend, I told Miki about this fabulous new thing I'd learned about... the frozen buttercream transfer (FBCT). And, then I found a handy little graphic to use for tracing that included everyone's favorite Autobot, Optimus Prime, and a female Autobot, Elita One. But, since I'm just crazy enough to think that this sort of thing is fun, I went to Miki's last Friday to help her try this new technique.So, armed with a print-out of the image, we prepared buttercream, tinted it the appropriate colors, taped the image to a sturdy plastic cutting board, covered it with plastic wrap, then started tracing.
First, you do the black outline of all the detail, and then you fill in with the colored frosting, filling the image in from front to back. Then, you push the frosting down with a off-set spatula, and even it out, and pop it into the freezer.

When you are ready to use it, you just lay it on top of your frosted cake, and peel the plastic wrap off. Miki did Happy Birthday Aura & Rowan too, and you have to remember to reverse images and text since the image is flipped. There are some great videos on You Tube that demonstrate how to do the FBCT.

Miki did chocolate and vanilla cupcakes, grouped them into a "cake" and frosted with vanilla buttercream, then popped the transfers on (we added colored frosting as background to the letters so they'd be easier to manage). It's a technique I'll be using in the future for sure. I can just see a cake covered in Madeline and Erik's transferred artwork... now that would be cool!