Transfer an Image from Paper to Chocolate (Chocolate Transfers)

This is so easy and so fun! It will kick up the looks of any cake! It's a Chocolate Transfer!

Here is what you will need to do your transfer: candy-melts in the color of your image and color you want to outline with, shortening, bowls and spoons for each color, a disposable icing bag for each color, round icing tips #2-#4, microwave, sheet cake pan, wax paper, scotch tape, plastic gloves, plastic container large enough to hold your transfer (unless you are putting directly onto the cake)

To get started, tape your image to the bottom of the cookie sheet, and then tape the wax paper over the image. Set aside.

Let's say for instructional purposes that the image is a bouquet of flowers. Start with the color you are going to outline your image with (like black). Melt the outlining color in the microwave on 50% power in short intrevels (15-20 seconds) until completely melted. If the candy melts seem to thick, add shortening a little at a time until desired consistency is reached. It should be thin enough to pipe out of an icing bag, but thick enough it won't run out of the icing bag. Spoon the melted chocolate into the icing bag with the number 2 round tip. Trace the different elements of the image with the outline color (e.g. outside edges of petals, leaves or the veins of leaves, stems). Let this harden.

Once the outline has hardened up, you will add your other colored chocolates to the image one at a time using an icing bag with the larger round tip like the number 3 or 4 round tip.

Make sure you do the outermost layer first. What does this mean? Well, let's say the flowers have a yellow center. You will want to melt your yellow candy melts for the the center of the flower. But...if the yellow centers have brown specks on them, melt the brown candy melts first and do the specks first in brown and let them harden. For something small like this you could just dab on with a toothpick or paint brush. Once the brown hardens, melt the yellow candy melts and add the yellow to the image. But only melt one color at a time, so the candy melts don't harden back up. If the petals have a dark blue color around the center of the flower, but the actual petal color is light blue, then you would melt the dark blue first and let it harden before melting the light blue. You can also feather the chocolate with a paint brush. To explain what I mean, if the center of the flower is dark blue and fades to a light blue, you can do this. Pipe on the dark blue center and with your dry paint brush lightly grab the chocolate and pull the dark blue down the length of the petal a short ways lifting the brush as you pull. This will make the dark blue "feather" down the petal (Similar to brush embroidery).

Once all the colors have been added to the image, it will be necessary to remove any air bubbles. Lightly tap the cookie sheet on a flat surface to accomplish this.

Let the chocolate transfer harden. This will probably take at least an hour depending on the size of the transfer. Once hardened, put on the plastic gloves (to prevent melting the image and fingerprints on the image) gently peel the image away from the wax paper. Your transfer is now ready to store in an air tight container. These transfers can be kept for a few days, so you can do these ahead of time. All that remains now is to add this element to your cake, or you could use smaller images (e.g. bees, butterflies, hearts) on cupcakes.

Image how pretty a nice smooth buttercream cake would look with your beautiful bouquet of flowers in the center and smaller flowers on the sides. You may want to put a border around the image for a nicer appearance. You could also do some cupcake liners with a pretty ribbon attached and a lovely butterfly topping it off.