Can anyone give me pointers on the best way to cut a cake to a specific shape and still be able to ice the part that has been cut, smoothly? I am making a "backpack" (from Dora) cake for my son's 2nd birthday tomorrow. I'm using a square pan and plan to cut the cake to have backpack's shape and then use MMF for the "frosting". In the past when I have cut cakes the sides end up being very rough and I can't cover them smoothly with frosting. Someone told me to freeze the cake for about and hour before cutting... will this work? Does it affect the taste of the cake?

Freezing will help greatly. You;ll still be able to frost without problems, just be sure to give it a good crumb coat and let that set for a little bit befora you do your final icing to keep those crumbs locked in!

what I had to do with my baby bootie cupcakes that I cut was put on a crumb coating. other then that I can't think of anything else.

I crumb coat the cut area with a SMALL angled spatula. The small spatula doesn't pull on the cake as much and therefore I can get the icing to stick better. At least that is what I am guessing the difference is. When I use my regular icing spatula, I can't get it to stay there without pulling more crumbs off the cake.
A butter knife would do the same trick.

Freeze it for sure! You can apply the icing to difficult angles with a tube and then smooth and remove excess with a small spatula.

It definitely does help to freeze the cake before trying to sculpt...it does not affect the taste of the cake at all If I am doing a sculpted cake or not, I always use the icer tip..not crumbs whatsoever.

When I'm sculpting, I use my basketweave tip as an itty bitty icer tip. I don't usually freeze the cake when I do it that way because there isn't a need. If I'm using my angled tapered spatula to ice the cake, it does help to freeze the cake first.

I also use my angled tapered spatula to do all the actual sculpting on my cakes. Love that thing for sculpting.

Deanna

Thanks for all the great tips!