Today I made a cake involving two of my favorite things—chocolate, and polka dots!!!
I love anything and everything with polka dots—and so when I saw some polka dotted chocolate transfer sheets a while back, I knew that they needed to be in my kitchen.
Chocolate transfer sheets (not to be confused with edible image sheets) are strips of acetate that are embellished with cocoa butter. These sheets, which come in a huge variety of designs and colors, will give serious flair to your chocolate or candy coating accents. The possibilities are endless! Here is one idea for your cake file ~
First, I’m starting with a 6″ cake frosted in my favorite Chocolate Buttercream–pretty, but in need of a little makeover :0) –
I like to use candy melts/candy coating with chocolate transfers…whatever your favorite brand may be.
I’m sure that you could use chocolate chips as well. I like to keep this part as simple as possible. Here’s my melted chocolate, fresh from the microwave…
Here are my transfer sheets! At this point, I was thinking I would incorporate both my beloved polka dots as well as a happy birthday sheet.
There’s always the smooth side and the raised/rough side of the sheet. The raised side is what makes all of the fun happen…always keep that side up!
Some people use their transfer sheets to make a decorative chocolate wrap or chocolate collar, but today we will be cutting our chocolate into shards.
I’m working with a cake that is 4 inches tall…and so I cut my transfer sheets a so that they would be just a little bit taller than the height of the cake– at 4 1/2 inches. 
One at a time, I placed my transfer sheets on a parchment lined cookie sheet. That splotch of chocolate is on the underside–I’m using it as a glue to hold my sheet in place.
Time to spread on the melted chocolate!
I let the chocolate set for about 5 minutes or so on the countertop– just long enough for it to begin to take on a matte look.
Here’s a closer look. I had to do a couple of these in order to have enough shards to go all the way around the cake (I needed 11 shards, each 2 inches wide.)
You could let them sit for an hour or so until totally firm….or, if you are impatient like me, you can pop them in the refrigerator for 5-10 minutes.
Once they are nice and firm–you can easily use the scores that you made earlier in the chocolate to peel them up and away from the transfer sheet.
The design that used to be on the sheet, now appears on the chocolate where it belongs! :0) Cuteness!
I made some Happy Birthday shards too— this is how I was thinking of arranging them at first….then thought it may be too busy. It makes a pretty picture though!
The polka dotted shards won out in the end– you can see how I arranged them in this closeup shot below.
I chilled before applying them to make sure that they were not too fragile. Then I made my way around the cake, slightly overlapping each shard with the next. (If you need to, dot a little fresh buttercream on the back of each one to make sure it is secure.)
I had a few scrap pieces of embellished chocolate strips, and so I sliced them into smaller shapes :0)
Here’s an extreme closeup of the giant swirl of buttercream that I made on top. When in doubt, do a giant swirl of buttercream.
This was piped from a 2D tip. Strawberries or chocolate shavings would be beautiful too!
And now for the final shot! I added a pretty little bow to tie everything together. Aren’t we fancy?
I hope that you enjoyed this little tutorial. Nobody has to know how easy this was…we’ll just keep it between us.
Don’t miss our full collection of free cake tutorials and free cake videos in our Free Tutorials Section! Also, for our complete listing of FAVORITE cake and frosting recipes, don’t miss our Recipes Section.
So much deliciousness!
*If you are not a member of My Cake School, check out our “Join Page” for all of the details! Members have full access to every video tutorial we’ve made over the years. We’d love to have you!
Thanks for stopping by!
Love it…where do you get the clear sheets with the polka dots…I’ve only seen the ones that have white or other color behind them.
I love this idea can you please tell me where to buy these? Thank you for the great idea’s ;0)
Thanks! I bought mine here–
http://www.globalsugarart.com/search.php?search=chocolate+transfer+sheets
It looks like these are on backorder at the moment, but they have tons of cute ones. (You can find other online suppliers who sell transfer sheets also) —
AWESOME!! I knew they were easy, but this is a GREAT tutorial!! Thank You!!
Omg!!! This cake looks too good to eat. It’s more like look me but don’t eat me. I would love to try this out. Where can I purchase theses sheets?
Catarina
Thanks Catarina–I have the link just a couple of posts above :0) You should try it!
100% CUTE
So cute! I want to try this with just plain chocolate (not the designed transfer sheets). Would it work with waxed paper or do I need some type of acetate? TIA!
Awesome, thanks so much for sharing!!!
I don’t think i can find these sheets here. Anything else i can use in its place. Love your idea though as always. Thanks.
I have been wanting to do something like this for eons! THANKS..fantastic and thx for the heads up on where to buy.
Thank you Melissa found them
I am so excited to try this! Thanks Melissa!
http://www.ehow.com/how_5689519_make-cocoa-butter-transfer-sheet.html is a website I found that teaches you how to make them :)
http://www.countrykitchensa.com/catalog/mini.aspx?T=2&SubCatId=1544
http://www.americanchocolatedesigns.com/
I found those while looking, thought I would share :)
love love love this! Can hardly wait to try it out. Thanks, Melissa, for yet another great cake!
Awesome!!!!!
I LOVED LOVED LOVED this tutorial Thank you soooooo Much cant wait to try this.
OMG!! I LOVE this!! Thank You , Thank You, Thank You for all the Great ideas you share!!!!!!
You are so awesome. I love love love your site and blog! Thank you for all you share!
I had to share my “laugh of the day”. Thanks to you I reverted back to a childhood lesson of “look it up in the dictionary”. I would have sworn that those little dots were called “poka dots”. But you are much wiser, what I read as polka (a fast dance that we Germans really like) I thought you misspelled the word…haha. Thanks for the spelling lesson along with great baking tutorials.
Thanks so much everybody! Glad that you liked it!
Lexy–that is so funny! I do say “poka dot” though so I understand, lol :0)
Thanks for the help with the transfer sheets.
Another great idea! I’d like to know how long would the shards last til it gets soft again? If the place is humid, will the chocolate melt? Thanks!
Mine did not transfer all the way. Is my chocolate not hot enough or too hot?
Hi Mattie–I’m sorry, my guess would be that it wasn’t quite warm enough to melt the cocoa butter.
I so loved this tutorials of your…I just wish we have tranfer sheets available here in the Philippines.
I would love to try this out…:)
@Sweet Bliss–thank you! I’m sorry that they aren’t available for you! Some people make their own transfer sheets by using tinted cocoa butter on sheets of acetate—it is a little on the expensive side here though. Maybe an option for you?
@Monginis– you should!! They are a lot of fun to work with ;0)
@Melissa Diamond ..Thanks..:)
me encanta!
That’s lovely. And looks easy, indeed! Thanks for sharing.
I need to find the transfer sheets in store. Never paid attention to these before! :)
Thanks for the tutorial! The cake looks very impressive. I can’t wait to try.
thanks always nice to learn how to do different ways of decorating a cake
I must say wonderful idea and I love this idea! As a chocolate cake lover, I have started feelng hungry. What a beautiful way to serve something so comforting and tasty. Thanks for sharing!
What can I use to colour candy melts
Hi Dorothy, Wilton and Americolor have lines of oil based candy coloring gels. Just make sure the label says oil based or candy color as regular coloring gels will cause chocolate/candy coating to seize.