How To Do Frozen Butter Cream Transfer ( FBCT) – Baking Basics

When I posted a picture of my daughter’s birthday cake in FB, I got so many mails and messages to make a post for the technique. As I already had it in mind, I had taken photos while making my daughter’s cake. But it has taken so long for me to post it in my blog. Frozen Butter Cream Transfer aka FBCT by bakers, is a technique of creating beautiful pictures on cake with butter cream. The picture can be as simple as a single coloured logo to a more complicated shaded picture. In this post I have given you the step wise pictures to make cartoon characters on cake and also tips and trick to make it perfect.

When I was discussing the cake with my daughter, she wanted at least 10 of her favourite cartoon characters on the cake. I was like what???? Though I told her that I could do only one character, I made more than 5 as a surprise for her on her birth day. FBCT is quite simple. To begin with you need to print out the photos to the size you want it on the cake. Then you need to have the butter cream ready. Choose colours according to the design and fill them in disposable piping bags or zip lock bags. You also need to make a darker colour for the outline. Start with the outline and fill every colour on the design. Before moving on to the next colour, you need to freeze them. Once the design is completed, you can freeze it and apply it on the cake when ever you want.

I have used my Butter Cream recipe for the transfer. Though I have read that Italian Meringue and Swiss Meringue Butter Creams can be used, I am not very sure of that. SO I will stick to what I know will work best.  Here is the link to my American butter cream recipe.  You can also download the free eBook from my page.

I started with the printing. I selected the cartoons from the net and resized it according to the dimensions of my cake.

Place a tracing sheet for individual cartoons.

Trace the outline of the cartoon. Using a sketch pen is lot easier.

To make the black butter cream, add 1/4 cup of cocoa powder to 1 cup of butter cream.

Now add little milk to loosen the mixture.

Add in black gel colour. The amount depends upon how dark you want your butter cream to be. I added two toothpicks like the one shown. Always be sure to dip a fresh tooth pick into the gel colour bottle. Discard the one which has been dipped in the butter cream.

The colour is not black but butter cream darkens over night. So prepare the colours on the previous night itself.

Take a fine tip in a disposable piping bag and fill it with black butter cream.

Now take the tracing paper and invert it so that the traced part goes down. When you apply the design on the cake, it will be inverted again and you will have the original design on the cake.

Pipe the outline with the black butter cream.

Once the outline is done, place it on a tray and freeze it until firm.

Do for all the figures.

I filled seven different colours according to the design. One was the flesh tint which will be common for all the cartoons.

Start filling the design with the colour. Even the colour goes on the outline there is no problem as it will not be visible on the cake.

Even it out with a tooth pick. Make sure to fill all the corners with in the outline.

Before going to the next colour, freeze the design until firm. I kept on toggling between all the six cartoons.

Once done and the cartoon is firm, lift it and check the other side. This is how it is going on the cake.

I made all the cartoons the previous day itself when my daughter was in school. Freeze it until ready to use.

Frost a cake smoothly with the butter cream.

Now apply the cartoon along with the paper on the cake as per your design. As the cake is curved and the design is straight you need to wait a few seconds for the butter cream to go soft so that you can bend it on the cake. If you try to bend it when firm, it will break into two. With slight pressure, press the design on the cake. If the butter cream is very soft, then return the cake to the fridge so that it becomes firm before removing the paper.

Once firm, gently remove the paper from the design. Do not panic if there were some mishaps. For me the bujji’s hair stuck to the paper. But there is no worry. We can always correct these mistakes.

As you can see, dora’s dress fillings are not smooth. The next step is to correct that.

Usually they use Viva towels which are plain but here I don’t get them. So I used a non woven fabric. I read about this in the Butter Cream Bible book. Non Woven cloths are sold as kitchen swipes. So search for one. If you don’t get, you can always use a tracing sheet. Wait until the buttercream crusts. It may take 30 minutes. Place the fabric/ paper on the design and smooth the top with your forefinger. Be gentle.

As you can see Dora’s dress is now smooth. Use a fine tip to draw the left out designs.

This was before smoothing

This is after smoothing.

Now after you apply all the designs as per the above instructions, decorate the top as you wish.

Here are some angles of the cake.

I hope you found it easy to follow this tutorial. If you have any doubt mail me to gayathriraani@gmail.com