Great Big Birthday Cake!
May 7, 2009 at 4:33 pm | Posted in cakes & tortes, layer cakes, sweet things | 20 Comments
I spent most of this rainy afternoon decorating a birthday cake for a friend’s little guy. A fun project, but glad it’s behind me. Doing something like this just seems so much harder at home than at the bakery…not enough space, not enough bowls and, most importantly, no one to wash the dishes for me!
It’s a simple vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream, but I’ll post recipes when I assemble a small cake I plan to make with the leftovers. The tiger face was made with white chocolate, and was by far the part that made me most anxious!
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a whisk and a spoon 
that’s so adorable! i’m sure the tiger was hard to make but it looks perfect.
Comment by Sophie— May 7, 2009 #
that looks fantastic Stephanie! You are very talented
Comment by Tammy— May 7, 2009 #
This cake looks fantastic. You did such a great job with it.
Comment by Eliana— May 7, 2009 #
its cute you must have worked so hard
Comment by abbie little— June 29, 2009 #
this looks great! the little guy must have been so happy 🙂 I hate washing up. Especially when the whole kitchen is overflowing with bowls
Comment by snooky doodle— May 7, 2009 #
Wow, that is terrific, wish I could do something like that for my sister with her school mascot (she’s a cheerleader)
Comment by Mermaid Sweets— May 8, 2009 #
Mermaid– It’s really not too hard…if you want me to walk you through it, let me know. Basically it’s just tracing an image in colored white chocolate.
Comment by steph (whisk/spoon)— May 8, 2009 #
What a cute cake! I hope it isn’t the one he “destroys” for the traditional 1-year picture.
Comment by pinkstripes— May 8, 2009 #
That’s very impressive – the tiger looks awesome, I can’t believe you made that from scratch.
Comment by Katie— May 10, 2009 #
You are so talented. It looks so cute.
AmyRuth
Comment by Amy Ruth— May 13, 2009 #
Simple but perfect looking birthday cake! I’m envious of your writing skillz! 😀
Comment by Y— May 15, 2009 #
Lucky little boy! The tiger looks amazing!
Comment by Shari— May 15, 2009 #
Love the simplicity of the cake, some people go over the top trying to make big fancy cakes but yours is 10 times nicer by being so simple an elegant!
Comment by Niall Harbison— May 15, 2009 #
That tiger face is totally impressive! I’m sure the birthday boy loved it. All that butter cream look soooo good, too. I don’t think I could stop myself from sticking my finger into the frosting.
Comment by Elyse— May 16, 2009 #
I can see why the tiger made you anxious, but you obviously deal well with pressure! It’s adorable!
Comment by Amanda— May 20, 2009 #
Yeah, It’s really big, I also like to buy one like this, for me.
Comment by kids party supplies— May 21, 2009 #
I assume you place wax paper over the paper image and then trace in melted chocolate? Can I use candy melts? Let it sit and then peel it off?
Comment by Deb— February 3, 2014 #
hi Deb. I used parchment paper and melted white chocolate with food coloring and a drizzle of vegetable oil (just enough to keep it fluid), but I think waxed paper and candy melts would work fine.
here’s what I did: I knew I’d need to be able to move my image to the refrigerator, so I took my flattest sheet tray, turned it upside down and taped the image and parchment paper to it to keep it from curling or shifting.
I then got all my chocolate melted and colored and had a separate parchment cone for each (you could probably also use squeeze bottles or disposable bags with fine tip). I began by doing all the details (like the whites dots on eyes and nose, whiskers, etc) that I wanted to show through and then tracing the major outlines. After that, I filled the rest of the large color blocks in.
In order to keep the separate colors “stuck” together and to provide some extra reinforcement for the piece, once it was semi-set and I knew it wouldn’t smear, I flooded the back side with white (or orange, I don’t remember). It looks a little gloppy on the back, but won’t affect the front.
I don’t know whether candy melts set up quickly at room temp, but I needed to put my finished design in the refrigerator to fully set. Chocolate can begin to curl off the paper in the fridge if left too long, so I kept a close eye on it. You can peel it off easily as soon as it’s set.
Keep in mind that you are making a mirror (reverse) image when you do this and flip over your transfer to the nice, smooth side. So if you have writing on your original image or you need the design to face a certain direction, you’ll need to flip it.
Comment by steph (whisk/spoon)— February 4, 2014 #
if that wasn’t clear, here are a couple of links that have nice step-by-step photos of the process:
http://cakejournal.com/tutorials/how-to-make-a-chocolate-transfer/
Comment by steph (whisk/spoon)— February 4, 2014 #
Wow, thanks for the detailed information. You’re a peach!
Comment by Deb— February 4, 2014 #