I've started using a pieice of soft cloth to smooth my buttercream and find that it works miracles. I have always struggled with getting my icing smooth...the hot water and all that just wasn't cuttin the mustard...and it was always the most frustrating part of making my cakes .
Iwill post a before and after photo.
You can begin smoothing the cake right after you've finished icing. As a matter of fact it works better when the icing HASN'T crusted. The soft cloth works especially well because you can feel the bumps and ridges beneath your fingertips and apply pressure accordingly; just peek and smooth, peek and smooth. BTW I use a crusting buttercream.
I love applying my decorations to a perfectly smooth cake now!
I hope you will try it if you're struggling too.
(this is my first time posting a picture so I hope it works)

Thanks for the tip!

Debbie

Wow thats awesome, thanks for sharing
What kind of cloth do you use...like a kitchen towel?

What type of cloth are you using? Your cake a wonderfully smooth, can you give any more details?

I would love to know what kind of cloth you are using! Very smooth cake!

I want a smooth cake!!! Yes please tell us what kind of cloth you used!!

Thanks!!

Wow! What a difference. I have taken a few cake decoratings course, and still can not get my cake smoothed. Like everyone else asking, what kind of cloth did you use????

Great job!!! Yes please do tell what kind of cloth you r useing???
stacy,

Yes please share that wonderful secret cloth! Do you use a lens cloth? and how do you avoid getting lint/fuzzies on the cake?

Yes please tell us!!!! I was just complaining about my "not smooth" cakes it drives me nuts!!

Disco Lady what is your recipe? I am just in Wilton 1 and I don't plan on using their buttercream for my own cakes, I would like one with more butter. Would you share?

Wow, what a difference!! I would love to know what type of cloth you used also. I have tried everything and still haven't come up with a completely smooth surface. Thanks for the wonderful tip!!

Tanya

Yes its a wonderfully smooth finish but I just can't get over how many of you all either use the paper towel thing and now a cloth, I am puzzled.... is rubbing a paper towel or soft cloth not a hygenic concern??

I'm curious too. I use that trick where you run your spatula under VERY hot water, dry it quickly, then smooth. It works great! My friend from Johnson & Wales pastry school taught me that one.

I also used to work at a bakery where they blotted a damp sponge on the cake top to even and texture, but I've never seen a towel. How neat!

Does anyone have a trick for getting square corners clean and sharp? I can ice a round cake very smooth, but those squares and sheets always frustrate me!

WOW...now that's smooth! I'm a little confused as to how you keep the cloth from sticking to the icing if you don't wait until it crusts. Is it just a dry cloth or is it dampened? and what exactly, did you use? Please give more details!!!

OK this is so not fair. Your keeping us in suspence, it's killing us. PPLLLLLEEAASSEE tell us

I'm curious, too!

Hello, Hello? I think she posted her pics and left us!!!! AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!

Hi, I just sent DiscoLady a PM, maybe she will come back and answer some of these questions for us! Janice

yeah i think she left us,,, she just teased us then left.

Gee, I see I caused quite a commotion...but let me tell you when I first tried this I was quite excited about it too...and I can't take all the credit for this either, this is a tip I picked up in Ladycakes.com
Right now I am using a piece of cotton jersey (I'm pretty sure anyway) the tip specified "any tight woven cloth".
The cloth is dry and it will not stick to the icing. I use the Wilton "buttercream" recipe which contains NO butter, just shortening, so it crusts quite well. I don't know how this technique will work on a true buttercream, but please feel free to try and let us know. I waited too long once to smooth the cake and it DID NOT work on the crusted icing. so you should start working it right away.
As for fuzzies...I've caught a few but I just pick them off with a toothpick afterward; there aren't a whole lot.
I can't say how hygenic this technique is but I do not use bleach or dryer sheets when I dry this cloth.
I'm sure there are many chemicals in everything from the plastics and paper in our piping bags and cake boards. I'm also sure that a lot of you use the colored florist foils that are not FDA approved. And if you want to get really technical...Do you know that 75% of the dust in the air is made up of human skin? Think about that the next time you take a bite of cake that's been sitting out for a few hours with that stuff settling on it (urp!)
Hope this info. helps some of you.
I've permanently retired my hot spatula and I've also been happily sift-free for about a year...but that's another story!!

Thanks for getting back to us, DiscoLady, I'm sure we will be searching for a perfect piece of cloth to try this right away! Janice

I was going to say a cloth baby diaper....new of course is what I see my aunt use, and what a few bakeries around here use..... I have yet to try it...

Sift free? No way ... now tell us that story.

Try using interfacing from your fabric store that works great to . I tried to use the viva towel and it left marks. I had read about the interfacing and tried it I won't use anything else.

I've been using a piece of parchment paper to smooth my cakes and it works really nicely. I can feel any lumps under the paper and because it's paper, the warmth from my hand is just enough to soften the crust and smooth it out. Works great.

It's true! I no longer sift my powdered sugar. NEVER NEVER NEVER!
Errrr...that is only if it's a bag that I have already opened and has been sitting(I think it has to do with the air entering the bag).
Otherwise if it's a new bag I just dump it in the mixer and
NO LUMPS...HONEST!!
I've saved soooooo much time!

P.S. I tried parchment too but I love my little cloth (no waiting and it doesn't stick)

Viva paper towels work great for me and since you use a fresh one every time they can't be any less hygenic than the foil I use to cover my cake boards.

I also use the paper towel or even clean fingers to neaten up my corners as well (someone asked about that earlier.)

I agree and I still use a paper towel when I want to add a pattern to my icing. Are there any paper towels out there with a grid pattern on them? That would be great!!