Wolken

When my husband asked me what I wanted for my birthday cake this year my answer was “time to make a Threadcakes entry!” (Easier said than done, since we have 10 week-old twins and a two-year-old!) But I was given a morning off and set to work on my first ever Frozen Buttercream Transfer.

I started by reversing the image and printing it out, then I covered it with parchment paper and piped on the outline and details with my homemade almond buttercream. Next, I piped in one colour at a time, using a skewer to fill in the smaller spaces. Once I had filled in all the colours I outlined the whole transfer in my background colour (light green) and covered the back with a thick layer, then I popped it in the freezer.

The next day I baked a scratch chocolate cake with my daughter (while wearing one of the twins in a sling!). I forgot to take very many photos of this part since cooking with a two-year-old is more than a little chaotic, but since it's a 2D cake and most of the work is in the icing, I figure it's not so important.

Finally, I flat-iced the cake (with multiple breaks to check on babies) and flipped the frozen transfer onto the cake. There were a few things that went a bit wonky : the transfer didn't freeze very solid, so I had to be extra careful, but still it cracked in half (although I think I hid the line well). Also, when I put it on the cake I realized that my piped colours hadn't blended so I had to use a spatula to flatten them (hard to do without smudging). Finally, I had to add extra icing because the transfer was sitting higher than the rest of the cake. There ended up being a ton of icing on the cake – it was half as high as the cake itself! (I've included a photo of just how much icing is on there) In the end, though, I think it turned out pretty well.

All in all, I had a blast and would totally use this method again. I'm also hoping to make another Threadcakes entry this year, but we'll have to see how generous my husband is about baby-sitting.