This is how I make my cake smooth.

Picture 1: First I boil water. While the water is boiling I make my icing.

Picture 2: using an icer tip, I lay out my icing.

Picture 3 and 4: I pull a spatula from the water and shake hard once, I then smooth my icing only going in one direction. I turn the cake as I need to.

If I'm decorating a round cake, I use a turn table.

Picture 1 and 2: Continue smoothing tops and sides in this manner switching spatulas every couple of swipes.

This whole process takes less than 5 minutes.

This was very helpful! Thank you, I always have trouble icing my cakes.

While I allow the icing to crust, I wash my spatulas and other items and clean my workstation. By the time I am done doing that, my cake is ready for the final step.

With my icing crusted, I cover it with a smooth cloth or paper towel.

Important note: Whatever flaws, embossing or anything that is on the cloth, it will be picked up on your cake!!! Remember, this is just a sample. The cloth I'm using here will leave marks! It must be smooth.

I now smooth out my icing using a flat edge (I have also done this with a firm piece of cardboard).



You can view any of my cakes to see the final results. This method also removes air bubbles in your icing.

http://community.webshots.com/user/cali4dawn

Sample of smoothing with a cloth (also shows how sharp you can get your edges with this method):



Sample of smoothing with a paper towel for texture:



This entire process including washing dishes takes 15-20 minutes. Yours may take longer if your icing is slow to crust. You can do the hot knifing without a crusting recipe and I even do the hot knifing without the aid of the cloth (on a perfect day). But you must use a crusting recipe to do the cloth method.

Hey Dawn!
THANK YOU FOR THE TUTORIAL!!!!! I have been doing it the way you've shown. I think my spatual has had too much water on it or it's the humidity causing my cakes to NOT crust. I was thinking I was putting too much icing on the cake but seeing this I know I'm not. I will use the cardboard technique too! I still don't see how you get the papertowel indented in the icing. That is really cool!!

Have you brought your boys back yet? I bet your pooped!! What about the class you were planning for? How did it go? Email me ok~ Thanks again for the pictures! ~Tina~

Wow that was helpful....I kind of do things that way, but I notice that in places icing gets picked up causing me to scream! I know I probably need to wait more. We'll see on the next cake.

You will get it down Flavy!! I know you will~~

Well dang it! I have been working WAY to hard ! never though of multiple knives. Nor do I use the icing tip Glad I found this site

guess I need to print this thread and put in a notebook!

Gosh, Dawn I hate to hear about your pipes!! Will everything be fixed before Easter? I sure hope so! I hate having someone working in my house. I love the paper towel effect! I will be so happy to finish this wedding cake so I can start practicing on all these cool techniques you & everyone has shared!! Thanks for your tutorials!!!

If I don't talk to you before Easter.. HAPPY EASTER!!!

I think the embossed diamond pattern might look nice on the sides of certain wedding cakes.

I bet it would too. I'll have to try it! Happy Easter~

Clai4dawn, I tried the cupcake cake and it turned out wonderful on my first try! Thanks to all your helpful hints and tutorials. I have never iced a cake the the icing tip before. WOW! What an idiot I was. I was making it a lot harder on myself. Once I piped the icing in the rows it was almost perfect. I put the spatula over a hot flame and smoothed the top. Worked like a charm! I didn't even need a pot of water.

Have you ever tried that before. I'm not sure if it will do anything to the icing. Of course, I don't want it hard when some one bites into it. We will see tomorrow. I made them foe Easter and we will see if the kids give them a thumbs up.

BTW, your buttercream recipe is wonderful. It was sooo smooth. There were no airbubbles! Wonderful, I have never had the icing have no airbubbles.

Thank you soooo much.

Sounds great! I'm so glad it all went well for you!!

I use the boiling water because it cleans the knife in between swipes. I also have an electric stove (yuck!!) so the only thing flaming in my kitchen is me!! hahahahaha

Mchelle~ I was wondering if you ever had smoke smudges on your cake when you heat the spatula up like that? I would figure you would. If not that's a great tip! I thought of using an electric heating pad... putting the spatula's in between both ends of the pad... silly I know but it just might work LOL!!

I also recommend smoothing with a piece of parchment paper instead of paper towel. That gets it incredibly smooth! Just lay it over the cake and smooth it with your hand flat. You still have to use the crusting frosting and let it crust over first. I've been using the hot wet spatula idea, too, but I have to keep stopping to rinse it off. It still helps so much, though! The boiling water with two spatulas is a great idea! I just got the icing tip and can't wait to try that out, too!

Thanks for the photo tuturial and explanation! Very helpful!
~AngelWendy

I've tried parchment paper too and it still doesnt smoothe!
I am at my wits end...like I said in another post I cant smooth at all its seems, and I am discouraged quickly. If the smoothing doesnt turn out then my confidence isnt smooth either

Hmm.. make sure you're using a crusting buttercream and that you wait long enough for it to really crust - like 30 minutes or maybe 45. Gently touch it on the side with a finger and see if it feels crusted before you try to do the additional smoothing with the paper towel or parchment. I also find it will crust better in the fridge. Are you using the cake icing tip? That supposedly helps a lot. Also, make sure you add far more icing than you need on the cake because you take about 1/3 to 1/2 off in the smoothing process.

If you can't get it smooth, try to cover the bumpier parts with decoration on top - like basketweave which covers a multitude of sins, apparently.. or stars or extra roses.

Best of luck!
~AngelWendy

HEY that may be my problem...I am so worried about messing up the cake that I dont touch hard enough......

tcturtleshell.... it turned out fine, no brown spots or anything. I held the knife above the flame (not too close). I hope this will work fine from now on (keeping my fingers crossed) and maybe I can actually get all my cakes smooth.

Flav~

If your BC isn't getting crusty enough maybe you should add some meringue powder. I haven't been using it because I don't like paying the price! But I am going to add it to the wedding cakes icing. It's just so humid in LA. that my icing isn't crusting enough. Also, make sure you back away & leave it alone for at least 30 min or mor for me!

Calm down.... you'll figure it out!!!! If I can anyone can!!!!

Hey, Cali. I was just wondering if your paper towels are wet or dry when you do this? In the pic(it may just be my eyes) the towels look wet. I am likely confused though. Thanks!
~Tanya

No, dry- right off the roll. It may be the lighting.

well cali4dawn's tutorial worked for me. now i'm confident of doing more cakes. thanks cali4 dawn.

I also tried this method and it works awesome! I dont use the papertowel because my buttercream dosent crust, but the hot spatula does the trick. I've been using the icing tip for a while and I love it!

Great!!! I'm so glad it worked well for you!!