Punk Red Lips Buttercream Transfer Cake

Steps involved

Make cake layers
Make buttercream (no color)
Split and color buttercream
Assemble and ice cake
Pipe design onto parchment or acetate sheet
Transfer icing to decorate
Make and apply ganache drip
Add swirly dollops to the top

READ BEFORE CONTINUING: The following recipes are scaled to make the cake pictured above -- a 4 layer cake made with 6-inch round cake layers. If you wish to make a smaller cake, please scale down these recipes.

recipes used

1 vanilla cake recipe
1 - 1.5 batches Italian meringue buttercream
I made this buttercream vanilla flavored by adding 1 tablespoon of vanilla to my 1.5x batch (can add less or more to taste) *I also added some cocoa powder to the black icing to darken it - more information under the "colors used" section

Black Ganache Drip

Ingredients:

~4 oz. chocolate
~2 oz. heavy cream
Black gel food coloring (I used the black from the Wilton Color Right Food Coloring System)

You can go about making ganache several ways, but I like to do it in the following way because I find it simplest:

Add your chocolate and heavy cream to a microwave safe bowl.
Microwave for 20 seconds, remove from microwave, stir well.
Repeat step 2 until you have a silky ganache. TIP: Once things start to warm up I like to stir for a good bit of time in between heating it in the microwave -- you don't want to overcook the ganache and stirring well in between each heating helps prevent this.
NOTE: I like my ganache on the thicker side, but it's all a personal preference. I usually start with this ratio of 1 part cream to 2 parts chocolate and then adjust accordingly. If I find that the ganache is too thin I'll add some more chocolate, and if it's too thick I'll add some warm cream until it gets to the desired consistency.
Once you're ganache is the desired consistency add a few drops of black gel food coloring and mix well.

TIPS:

Let your ganache cool slightly before using.
Test your ganache on the side of a bowl or glass before using. I take a bit of ganache on a spoon and drop it on the edge of a glass and see how fast or slow it runs down. It's basically doing a practice drip before you start on the cake to make sure you're ganache is the right consistency.

Colors used

To get these colors, I used Wilton's Color Right Food Coloring System and Wilton's Gel Icing Color in Black.*

For the icing:

The colors may differ depending on how much icing you're coloring and the starting color of your buttercream (certain butter brands are more white or yellow which can make the buttercream whiter or more yellow). These are the amounts I used and should get you close.

Red Icing:

Crimson: 75 drops

Red: 30 drops

Black Icing:

For detailed instructions on how I get deep black icing, click here.

Supplies/tools

To find the tools I use for almost every cake I make and decorate (including pans, cake boards, icing smoothers, etc.), click here.

The supplies/tools below are specifically for decorating this cake, which I used in addition to the ones in the link above.*

*Some of these links may be affiliate. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. I earn a small amount from some purchases, however, this does not affect my recommendations.

Decorating the cake

After the cake has been assembled and iced:

Store the iced cake in fridge while completing next steps.
Print out your desired image so you'll be able to trace it easily. The image of the lips I used can be found here or further down on the page (click the image to enlarge).
Cut a piece of parchment or acetate large enough to fit your desired design (I used parchment paper for this cake).
Tape your printed design to the counter and place your piece of parchment or acetate on top (I like to tape this to the counter as well so it doesn't move around while I'm piping).
Add each color icing to it's own piping bag fitted with a coupler and a round piping tip (refer to the tips below).
Using an appropriatley sized round tip for the area you're covering, start piping the design. Start with the outlines, followed by the smaller details (like the highlights on the lips). Then fill in the larger areas with a larger round piping tip.
Once your design is fully piped onto the parchment, lightly and carefully smooth the design with the side of a toothpick or a small offset spatula. You want to make sure that the icing is all roughly the same height, so when you apply it to the cake all areas of the design are touching the cake.
Take your cold cake out of the fridge. Carefully lift the parchment with your design and stick it to the cake. Gently press the design onto the cake so all areas of the design are sticking to it.
Place the cake with the parchment still attached into the fridge until the icing is firm.
Once the icing feels firm to the touch, gently peel back a corner of the parchment paper from the design. If the parchment comes off cleanly, continue to peel the parchment the rest of the way off. If the icing comes off with the parchment, press the corner of the parchment back onto the cake and give it some more time in the fridge.
Place your cake into the fridge while you make your black ganache drip. Once the drip is ready, remove the cake from the fridge.
After doing a test drip on the side of a glass, use a squeeze bottle, spoon, or piping bag to add ganache to the edge of the cake allowing it to run down the sides. Continue creating drips around the whole cake.
With the leftover ganache add some to the top of the cake and gently spread it out with an offset spatula to cover the top.
With a piping bag fit with a Wilton 1M tip, add "swirly dollops" to the top of the cake. Click here for information on creating these "swirly dollops".
Slice and enjoy :)