I did have a chance to try out a new technique for a friend. She requested an Elmo cake. The birthday girl (her niece) was having an Elmo & Abby party so I made some cupcakes with both characters. For the cupcakes, I kept it simple - chocolate cupcakes in Elmo wrappers with chocolate icing and I made cupcake picks using a picture from Photoshop glued onto store bought picks. It would be so simple to make these completely, but I was a little lazy!
The cake was basically a fancy smash cake. I made a 6in round chocolate cake (using same batter as cupcakes) layered with chocolate and frosted in buttercream. For the Elmo, I decided to try a technique I had seen on youtube called buttercream transfer. Pretty self explanatory really. Luckily for me, Elmo is pretty much 4 colors - red, black, orange & white. So I did the black outline and then filled in the red, orange and white. I am glad with the way it turned out, but next time there are a couple of things I think I'll try next time. First, do the outline and then freeze/fridge until hard. I was so afraid of smearing the black, my piping for the red & white was a little sloppy. I would have been less afraid to smooth it out if the black was hardened. I also would smooth the whole thing a little better so it was more flat. But, like I said, I was impressed with how well it turned out and how easy it was. Of course, typical me, it looks a little like a wedding cake. I should have colored all the buttercream to prevent that. Instead, I opted for some red dots to make it a little more fun. Luckily and most importantly, Grace didn't seem to mind any flaws! :)
