Neon Buttercream Transfer Cake

Celebrate birthdays, anniversaries or just making it to Friday with this fun Neon Buttercream Transfer Cake. Decorated using the buttercream transfer technique, this cake may look complicated, but it’s no harder than tracing your design with frosting. Featuring fun shades of neon blue, green and purple, this bright and beautiful cake is ready for any celebration! Add some colorful candles or a fun cake topper for the perfect finishing touch.

Prep2 hr
Total Time6 hr 30 min
Skill LevelBeginner

Ingredients & Tools
Instructions

Instructions

Swag Pattern

Click to mark complete

Bake cakes. Prepare cake batter following recipe instructions. Bake and cool 2 cake layers. Level both layers to 2-1/2 in. tall. Fill and stack for 5 in. high cake.
Tint icing and prepare decorating bags. Using formulas listed below, tint icing and prepare decorating bags as follows:
For Swags:
- Using Kelly Green and Lemon Yellow icing colors, tint 2 cups icing lime green; place in bag with tip 12
- Using Sky Blue and a touch of Kelly Green icing colors, tint 3 cups icing teal blue; place in bag with tip 8
For Dots:
- Using Rose and Violet icing colors, tint ½ cup icing purple; place in bag with tip 8
- Using Ivory, Lemon Yellow and Creamy Peach icing colors, tint ¼ cup icing peach; place in bag with tip 4
For Borders:
- Using Rose and Violet icing colors, tint 1 cup icing medium purple; place in bag with tip 4B
- Using Kelly Green and a touch of Royal Blue icing colors, tint ½ cup icing mint green; place in bag with tip 21
Reserve remaining icing white.
Ice cake. Using remaining white icing, crumb coat cake.
Using some of the lime green icing, ice top of cake smooth.
Prepare buttercream transfer template. Print swag pattern template. Place on cake board; tape to secure.
Cut parchment paper into rectangle measuring 5-1/4 in. high by 24 in. wide (it should be a little bigger than the swag pattern to allow for the added width of the buttercream transfer). Place over pattern; tape to secure.
Pipe swag and dots. Using lime green icing, fill in top swags.
Using purple icing, pipe large dots.
Using peach icing, pipe small dots.
Freeze until set, about 30 minutes.
Outline design. Using teal blue icing, fill in bottom swag. Freeze until set, about 15 minutes.
Using remaining teal blue icing, pipe a layer of icing over entire transfer. Freeze until set, about 15 minutes.
Decorate cake. Carefully wrap design around iced cake. Do not remove the parchment paper. Place in freezer to set, about 15 minutes.
Carefully remove parchment paper. Using a knife or tapered spatula, remove excess buttercream from top of cake. If needed, pipe lime green buttercream around top edge of cake and smooth with spatula to clean up the edge.
Using medium purple buttercream in 4B bag, pipe shell border around top edge of cake. Using mint green buttercream in tip 21 bag, pipe shell border around bottom edge of cake.