Frozen Buttercream Transfer Resource Page to make Awesome DIY Homemade Cakes for any Occasion!

I'm not a cake expert, I'm just a busy mom with a full-time job trying to make homemade custom "awesomeness" for my family. So don't expect to see cake perfection here.! The main reason I make homemade custom cakes is because my son has food allergies. I don't have the luxury of running to the local bakery for a child's birthday cake, so homemade is what it has to be for most of our special occasions. I had to find a simple solution for birthday celebrations and that's when I stumbled upon frozen buttercream transfers. The are safe, yummy, fun and easy to do, and the designs are endless!

Here is a list of my favorite resources that helped me learn how to make Frozen Buttercream Transfers for homemade cakes.

A wonderful step-by-step tutorial (complete with wonderful pictures) on Cake Central.


Great video by Kerry's Kakes that shows the motions (no words, just awesome ).

A video by Wiltoncakedecorating that take you through the process from start to finish. I couldn't help but laugh every time she said "wax," but it is a great tutorial.

"How to decorate a cake - Easy Cake Decorating Ideas and Tips" from BettyCrockerTV. This is what helped me learn how to work with icing.

My cakes. Not perfect, but fun enough!

  

Sonic the Hedgehog cake
for my son's 5th birthday.

My first
Frozen Buttercream Transfer Experiement.

Oilers Cake for my hubby.

Canada Day Cupcakes with FREE Printable Flag Template.

Since my sweet hubby will have to celebrate Canada Day here in the States, I decided to have some festivities this coming Sunday to put a smile on his face :) We will be having my family over for lunch anyway so I figured, "Can't go wrong with cupcakes!"

I have so many ideas in mind: red velvet to cream stuffed or swirly red and white icing ideas...but I also have a budget and limited time. And the husband doesn't have a broad taste palet so I decided to go with simple chocolate chips cupcakes with red/white icing topped with Canadian Flags on toothpicks. I Google-searched high and low looking for free printable Canadian Flags but ended up with nothing. So I said it would be quicker to make them myself. And since I didn't find any fairly quick, I am posting them here to share!

**UPDATE** LINK HAS BEEN CORRECTED 7/4/2017

Click HERE to get the FREE printable template for Canada Day Cupcake Flag. Once there, just right click and save!

 (if any troubles with DL, let me know. I may have to tweak it later but for now this will do :)

Unfortunately, my printer wanted to run out of ink and so some of the flags are "Off-color." I say that because I don't' want to call them pink :p

Cupcake Flag Instruction instructions after printing the template above:

 1.) Cut down white line in center of the page.

2.) Then cut out the strips of flags. DON'T cut out each individual flag. You want two flags connected to each other. You will have 14 double flags in all.

3.) See that massive red block awkward block in the middle of the connected flags? That's where you want to fold it in half. Apply glue to back of paper, then wrap it around your toothpick. I made sure the ends opposite of the toothpick lines up, then smooshed the rest together to make it even.

The above pic is the result! Super cute!

Hope it helps! They were super easy and fun to make, decorate with, and enjoy for day!

Portal Companion Cube Wedding Shower Cake.

Bakery that made it had no clue what the heck it was supposed to be. Ha!

I've been meaning to post pics of the Companion Cube cake my co-workers gave me for my in-office Bridal Shower ever since... uh..well, lol, Spetember of 2010. Ha ha! Better late than never!

Only one other person in the office knew what the Companion Cube was and that's only because of me being a super dork  at work (and maybe because I have a paper craft Companion Cube sitting on my desk). So trying to keep it a big secret, but not knowing what it was or even how to describe it to a bakery (whom also had no clue what it was) must have been quite a challenge for the rest of them. Teehee, how funny! I love it! But with that being said, I think it turned out great considering. It was also a teensy little bit awkward during the party because everyone in the room was in a low whisper asking, "What the hell is that thing? o.O" HAHA! I'm socially awkward anyway, but it's no matter because that made me love the cake even more! *Loner Nerd Victory Stance*

The shower was a total surprise; I didn't have a clue. Since I was unable to get the wedding cake of my dreams (3 Tier white cake with a FFXI Red Mage Cake topper or a Companion Cube), my best-est buddy at work was sneaky enough to arrange for me to have one anyway. And that was perfect enough for me :)

The best thing about it though:  it was Italian Cream. :) Yummlies.

Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes

I made these little babies above for my Mom on her birthday. She loved them! Hope you had a Happy Birthday, Mom! I wanted to do another FBCT but she said she wanted Pineapple Upside Down Cake. She's the birthday girl so she gets what she wants, but I still wanted to make something different. And thus, I found this recipe at Duncanhines.com for a cupcake version. It was perfect and easy!

I didn't use Duncan Hines though, I used (dun dun dun!) Betty Crocker. >:O Reason being because my son loves Pineapple Upside Down Cake and Betty Crocker is free of his allergens, whereas Duncan Hines has the "may contain" warning. My son loves, Loves, LOVES pineapple upside down cake. So he was totally tickled by these, too. It's one to keep in our family recipe book!

Update 1/19/2014: The recipe link was no longer valid because it was removed from the Duncan Hines website. I found the following recipe on their site, but it was submitted by another user. I can't remember if this is the exact recipe I used, but glancing over it ...it looks to be very similar. I tweaked it a bit but I might have to make these again so nail down the recipe for sure (notice what I did there? Reason to make more!).

Ingredients

• 1 duncan Hines upside down pineapple cake mix

• Brown sugar

• 1 can crushed pineapples

• 1 jar of cherries

• The ingredients called for in the cake mix.

• Paper cupcake holders (optional)

Baking Instructions

• Make cake batter as directed on back of box.

• melt appx 1 1/2 cups butter, pour 1 teaspoon in each cupcake wrapper or holder.

• next use appx. 1 to 2 cups brown sugar, sprinkle small amount into each cup holder.

• place 1 half of cherry in each cupcake holder. Can cut each cherry in half if desired.

• place teaspoon of crushed pineapple in each holder.

• Pour batter. You can fill almost to top of cupcake holder.

• Bake until golden brown or toothpick is inserted and comes out clean.

• remove from oven , remove cupcake holder paper immediately and flip cupcake over so that pineapple and cherries are on top.

src: www.duncanhines.com/recipes/cupcakes/christyt/upside-down-pineapple-cupocakes

Edmonton Oilers Birthday Cake Using Frozen Buttercream Transfer.

For my husband's last birthday (which was last September so I'm going off memory here), I wanted to surprise him with an Edmonton Oilers cake. For the most part, I thought it turned out decent enough and not a complete fail. But my husband thought it was the most awesome cake ever and it earned me the "You're the Best Wife in the World!" award. I think it was mostly because I presented him with "Oilers logo on chocolate" and the "Thought" of it, but he still insists it was the best cake ever. So for that, I call it a success!

However, there were a lot of mistakes made and I will point out some tips of what not to do. First of all, it isn't a good idea to rush a FBCT at anytime. I was burning the midnight oil on this one and was very tired so I was pushing myself. Second, it was my first time working with words within the transfer itself. There were several straight lines at the bottom of the text and I don't have the steadiest of hands (especially when I am tired). Plus I clumped too much icing into it. So all that made the design turn out to be very jagged

For my Oilers Fan :P

As you probably noticed, there are also a couple of spots in the "L" that didn't get filled. I will get to that later.

The How-to:
Might want to also check out the tutorial at Cake Central as a follow-along reference as well. They will cover more details that I may have missed.

To start off, here is the logo I used (larger image found here)


I saved the logo to my computer and then used Paint Shop Pro to create a mirror image. This is an important step! You have reverse the image or else your letters will turn out backwards on your cake. If it's just a picture, then it really doesn't matter unless it's a personal preference.

After that, I printed the logo on regular paper as a full page photo (make sure you deselect "Fit picture to frame." That way the image won't be cut off). Gray scale is fine; you don't really need the colors unless you need it for reference.

Then, I took my handy-dandy cutting board and taped the corners of my page with the logo onto the center of the board. After that, I laid a single layer of wax paper and taped that to the board as well. That way, none of my papers will be sliding about while I am tracing.

This is is what it looked like with the wax paper on top of the image I traced. I personally like to make sure the wax paper is larger than the image paper. You can see it in the picture.



I then outlined everything except the oil drop (sorry, no pics of that) in icing colored with Wilton's Navy blue. Then I outlined the oil drop with icing colored with Wilton's Orange.

Then I filled them in. This is what it looked like:


At this point I am pointing out how thick and jagged it looks because, like I said, I was rushing and not using the proper pressure with the icing. Plus, I found this design kind of difficult because there were a lot of straight lines that were fairly close to each other. That, combined with improper icing tip size, caused the lines to look very unclean and thick. I made my own icing bags using wax paper and I cut too much off the tip, creating a bigger hole than what I needed.

Remember the white areas in the "L" that didn't get completely filled? I decided to point that out to show that smoothing the back of your icing is an important step. If you don't, it will have holes just like mine did. So gently push and smooth the back of your icing with a small, clean spatula to help it settle in the empty areas (see pictures of this at Cake Central). Do this before you cover the back with your final layer of icing.

After smoothing your colored icings, cover the entire back with icing. This is what it looked like before I smoothed it out.


It is recommend covering the back of your FBCT with the same color of your iced cake. Even though I was making a chocolate cake with chocolate icing, and considering the entire FBCT would cover the entire top of my round cake, I figured it wouldn't matter much (which it didn't for this particular case). Otherwise, I would recommend using the same color as well.

After smoothing out the back (la-la-la, Cake Central has pics of this step because I forgot to take), I stuck it in the freezer for overnight. Cutting board and all. Some say you can freeze it for a couple of hours and it will still work, but I love preparing it the night before to let it get nice and stiff.

Since the logo is round, I thought putting it on a round cake would be a great idea. Wouldn't you know, the FBCT fit perfectly. :) I wanted to add the icing trim, but I completely forgot about it until it was too late. But I served it on my glass cake stand and then presented it, as is, to one very happy and grateful hubby!

Transfer is still frozen in this picture. Those spots really irritate me. LOL! 

Birthday boy gets to cut the cake! Icing is somewhat thawed at this point.

Sonic the Hedgehog Birthday Cake using Frozen Buttercream Transfer (Beginner Level).

My son can be so unconventional, he always wants something that is not the latest craze. Totally cool if you ask me; I'm proud! But sometimes Mommy would like something easy, ya know? Go to Wal-Mart, order the latest Iron Man cake and swing by the party department for matching plates and DONE! But that is not the case so I had to put on my creativity hat. For his birthday this year, he wanted a Sonic the Hedgehog cake. So I discovered Frozen Buttercream Transfers and taught myself how to work with icing.

It was so much fun to make! It was very time consuming and I am glad I practiced on a smaller cake first. I went for something easy since I am still a cake noob. I just traced Sonic's face, not the whole body. I wrote Happy Birthday on the side and presented it for the one and only person it mattered to: my son. He loved it and was as giddy as... well as a 5 year-old on his birthday!

I wanted to use a lighter colored icing for the background, but the kiddo wanted chocolate everything. The FBCT, however, was made with store-bought vanilla Betty Crocker icing so the food coloring would be at it's best. The cake was a simple Cherrybrook Kitchen Chocolate Cake Mix - allergy free, of course! Peanut Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free, & Nut Free to be exact. Quick review of it: Everyone thought it tasted great! Found it at the local health food store, but I heard Albertson's carried it as well. I used two boxes to make a double layered cake, which it wasn't easy to do with this cake mix considering there isn't much to hold it together. But icing is a nice glue and cover up, so I practiced with it and it turned out nice!

At the party I got a lot of compliments from the parents, even an, "She didn't make that. She bought it." LOL,  yes, I did take that as a compliment! Everyone enjoyed it and I was very proud of learning something new (and thankful it turned out well). But mostly, I was happy the kids were really tickled with  it.

UPDATE (2-11-12)
I have added the pictures I snapped of my the order of my process:

The image with wax paper on top.

Black icing outline of Sonic's Head (I wish now I did the whole thing!)

Filled in the cream colored areas.

Filled in the green eyes.

Filled in the white areas of the eyes.

Sorry, I skipped some steps in the photos. But Then I filled in the rest of the areas with blue icing and then covered  the entire back with brown icing. Then gently smoothed out the back to make sure the icing settled in the empty areas. Then placed the FBCT in the freezer overnight. 

For more detailed instructions, please visit Cake Central's "How to Create a Frozen Buttercream Transfer", or check out my FBCT Resources page for links to tutorials and videos.

Sending Food Allergic Children to School

"Sending Food Allergic Children to School" is a great guide offered by Kids With Food Allergies to help prepare your food allergic child for school. Over the past two months I have been preparing my son to start Kindergarten and let me tell you, it's been an exciting and, at the same time, a nerve-racking experience. I am happy and scared at the same time. That's suppose to be normal right? HAHA! Well, along with backpacks, lunch boxes, school supplies, and teaching my kiddo all about "Stranger Danger," I also had to meet with his allergist to form a Food Allergy Action Plan, make sure Epipens/Twinjects are renewed, learn how to not share or trade snacks/lunch/drinks even when it looks like a safe food, and set up meetings with the school nurse and his teacher. The list goes on, like school parties. Ever since he was diagnosed at the age of one, I have been afraid that my child would have to sit out for the Christmas party or be the only child without a treat when someone brings cupcakes for their child's birthday. I refuse to put my child in a bubble and dealing with food allergies is all about education and having a backup plan. So I best be ready and stock up on some Cherrybrook Kitchen peanut-free/nut-free/egg-free/dairy-free cake mix! Which, by the way, are very delicious despite the "lack of" ingredients!

My First Frozen Buttercream Transfer (I used Mario Mushrooms!)

I was at a loss on how make a Sonic the Hedgehog birthday cake for my kiddo's birthday and was looking into printed edible images when I stumbled upon the FBCT (Frozen Buttercream Transfer). I originally found this neat project and gave it to a friend (she's pretty good with cakes) to try out. We both had never heard of FBCT but apparently it is a widely used technique. All you do is print out an image (or grab one from a coloring book), place wax paper on top of it, trace the outlines onto the wax paper, fill in with colored icing, coat the entire back with icing that matches the cake icing, freeze it, then voila: you have an edible buttercream image to place on top of your iced cake. Neato!

I decided to do a test FBCT first. I chose some Super Mario mushrooms because they are simple, have color, and have easy areas to work with. So this is what I made:

Tada!

I also practiced icing the cake too because I suck at it. Even tho that part still looks choppy, it's still the best looking cake I have ever made! And I had a lot of fun and it tasted great. I'll post another blog later that shows how I did it.

Needless to say, my friend's FBCT didn't turn out so well. Her outline and some of the colored icing peeled off with the wax paper. She used the Wilton black icing in the tube. I read in many FBCT tutorials and threads that the Wilton icing in the tube doesn't work well for this project. Some said it worked okay when they used it, but I used Betty Crocker milk chocolate icing (because coloring it black is super easy) and it worked like a dream. It froze and peeled nicely. Also, she only let her FBCT freeze for about an hour. I let mine freeze overnight to make sure it was sturdy and solid before I applied it to the cake.

Helpful videos I used:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV2DZDuv9XA - "How to do a Buttercream Transfer"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILouJOZ9I4o - "How to Decorate a Cake" from BettyCrockerTV

UPDATE (2-18-12)
See these two videos plus more on my FBCT Resource page!

Peepshi (Peep Sushie), fun sweet treat for the family!

I was itching to make "Peepshi" after I discovered the recipe. All we used are Peeps, Rice Krispie Treats, and Fruit Rollups. They were fun to make and unexpectedly tasted awesome! The kiddo was tickled silly with making them and I was having giggly-fun by serving them on a sushi dish. We even ate them with chopsticks and tea! This was well worth the short prep time and cheap ingredients! We want to make more soon!