Super Mario Brothers Cupcake Toppers

So, here's my best attempt at a tutorial for how to make a buttercream freezer transfer.  This is a great technique to work on - you end up with a delicious buttercream topper that looks just like the image you've printed off.  Enjoy!  These were for my son's 6th birthday party... hence the Mario Brothers Theme.

Step 1:  Choose and format the picture you want to use.  Choose something that's not too terribly detailed, and won't require loads of different icing colors.  Especially for your first attempt.  To make these work as cupcake toppers, I downloaded some images I liked and then copied and pasted them until I had two sheets of varied pictures.  I traced a circle around each one to have a border I could work in.

Step 2:  Tape your picture down to a cutting board, cookie sheet or other portable flat surface.  Then lay a piece of parchment or wax paper on top of the picture and tape the parchment paper down.  This is important - if your parchment picks up while your piping it causes major headaches.  I'm just sayin'...

 Step 3:  Using black icing and a tip of appropriate size, pipe over all the outlines on your design.  Now, if I were going to have chocolate icing I would have just colored a bunch black and used that.  However, I didn't use chocolate today and making strong black icing from plain white gives me a headache, it tastes bad, and it can turn teeth black - so, it was worth it to me to use this decorating icing for this go-round. I also added a little shortening and meringue powder to my icing for decorating because in the spring and summer months in Texas, cake decorators battle with high heat and high humidity.  Adding a little shortening and some meringue powder will ensure that as your design thaws at the end, it will stay true to its form.

 Step 4:  Now that you've outlined your shapes, start going back in with the colors for the details.  You will eventually be flipping this over, so the colors you pipe first will be on top when you are done.  Keep that in mind as you are filling in your design.  For example, I piped my black outline, then the whites of the eyes and teeth before filling in with the background color.

 Step 5:  Use a small wet  paintbrush to push the icing into all the little nooks and crannies of your design. 

 Step 6:  Now, use a tip of choice (I like the star tip) and fill in the remainder of your design.  Go ahead and pipe over everything you've just done.  

 Step 7:  Use a wet paintbrush to push the icing into any remaining nooks and crannies.

 Step 8:  Now, use a color and tip of your choice to fill in the background.  This was important for cupcake toppers because I was planning on turning these into little buttercream discs to fit perfectly on top of a cupcake.

 Step 9:  Now, use a wet paintbrush to push the icing into any remaining nooks and crannies.  You also want to make the top pretty flat... this will be the side that sits on your cake or cupcakes.  So, if it's really uneven it might mess up your design as it thaws out.

 Step 10:  I reinforced the edge of my topper with black again, just to help even out the thickness of the whole thing.  Now, if you've only been doing one big picture to put on a cake, it's time to put the whole thing in the freezer.  If you're doing cupcake toppers, finish the remaining toppers and then put the whole thing in the freezer.  I froze mine just overnight.  I've done it for about 3 hours and had it work well.  The real beauty is that you can freeze these for a week or more - so plan ahead and you'll save yourself some pre-party stress!

 Step 11:  When ready (day of the party), bring your design out of the freezer.  For cupcake toppers, you'll want to cut the parchment paper and flip each topper individually.  

 Step 12:  Place your design (buttercream down) on the cupcake.  Press down gently to make sure it's really on there and anchored a bit.  Frost your cupcakes with just a little icing before adding the frozen topper.

 Step 13:  Gently peel off the parchment paper, and voila!  You've got it!

 A Mario topper just for Liam... the birthday candle went in this one. 

 You can see the little guy on the left is a little more upset than his buddies... sometimes tracing with black icing takes a few trials and errors :)

 Yoshi's!  These were a hit.

The rest of the cupcakes... lots of vanilla cupcakes with red icing and dots for mushrooms.  Chocolate and vanilla for the glittery "M"'s, and chocolate and vanilla for the buttercream transfer cupcakes.  

Good luck - this is such a great mom technique!!!