The Making of the Cinderella Cake | Buttercream Transfer Method
McKenna’s birthday was drawing near and I had planned on just having a low key family birthday. I honestly didn’t think she would care if we had a “theme” for her birthday so I was going to pick. I very much enjoy picking the theme while I can, usually something simple and easy. I had a hard time getting excited and motivated to make her last cake and so I was a little worried I wasn’t going to enjoy this cake making, too. I grew up with my mom making all our birthday cakes so even though I wasn’t very motivated I do want that for my kids, too. The least I can do is make their cakes.
I didn’t even have to ask McKenna about a theme, someone asked her about her birthday coming up and she told them “I’m having a CINDERELLA BIRTHDAY!” So that was that, I guess Cinderella it is.
That night I headed to Pinterest and searched for ideas for her cake. I wasn’t sure how hard making a princess skirt cake would be, and then there were castle cakes that looked crazy hard, and tiered fondant cakes (even harder). I had tried the buttercream transfer method that I found on Pinterest earlier for my son’s birthday, but it didn’t transfer very well and I had so much touching up to do I thought I would never do that again.
Well, I opted to give it a try again… and it turned out WAY better this time! Here is how I did it.
Choose the picture you want to put on your cake. I chose a Cinderella head shot with not a lot of detail to worry about. You tape the picture to the bottom of a piece of glass.
Then tape wax paper on top of the glass. Make sure the wax paper covers the whole picture you wish to transfer.
As you can see, you are able to clearly see the picture through the glass and wax paper. You can now start with your icing process. I first outlined the whole picture with black icing. Be generous with the icing, my last cake I did it too thin and the icing didn’t peel off and stuck to the wax paper.
Once outlined just color in the rest of your picture keeping the icing nice and thick. Remember everything will be mirrored when you flip it onto your cake, so any words you will need to have them mirrored to they are not backwards when you flip it. Also start with the details that will be on the top surface of the picture and work backwards, for the top layer may get covered with another layer of icing.
When you are all done coloring in your picture, place the whole thing glass and all into the freezer. While it’s freezing I iced the rest of the cake. It took about half an hour for it to freeze.
Remove the wax paper and flip it over onto your cake… then peel the wax paper off. Because cinderella was so big I left her on the glass and flipped the picture over while still on the glass. I then removed the glass while flipped onto the cake and then slowly peel back the wax paper.
Ta-Da there you have it… an easy picture transfer that even you can do! My daughter was SO excited to see Cinderella on her cake!
I am completely blown away with how awesome this cake looks. You did such a great job and it really looks like Cinderella. I think that you are terrific in making Mckenna’ s birthday wish come true by giving her a Cinderella cake for her birthday. She will always remember getting such a wonderful cake.
This is an amazing cake, I love to make cakes so I will have to try this method of making one soon
I must make this cake for my granddaughter’s birthday! She is obsessed with Cindirella and watches the movie at least once a day.
wow.. that is great! Happy Birthday princess.
That came out great – very professional! I contemplated a castle cake for my daughter’s princess-themed 5th birthday, but I agree that they look really difficult! I opted for ultra-girl pink piped cupcakes and a “ruffle” cake.
I love cupcakes.. they are so quick to make, very cute and less messy serving and cleaning them up.
Awesome idea and a very beautiful cake. Thank you for sharing this idea.
How beautiful, you are so talented! I have to try this one, I’m making a Disney Princess quilt cover for her bed and I can try a cake like this with them on it also. Thank you, Thank you, THANK YOU!!!
I’ve never seen this done before. Very cool idea!
This is a really cool cake. I think it is done very well and would be a good cake to make my niece who loves playing Cinderella!
The Cinderew3lla cake looks like a lot of fun for any girl. I would love to do this for my niece.
amazing! store bought transfer cakes cost a fortune, it’s amazing to be able to do this at home. I will so have to try this soon.
This is such a cute cake! I loved Cinderella as a kid, still do:) Thank you for sharing.