I've covered a few cakes during my time and consider myself to be of reasonable skill when it comes to decorating but one area that always bugs me is trimming the excess off the bottom of a fondant covered cake before tidying it up!
Sometimes it's a dream and there is barely a mark to be seen and other times it's like I've hacked at it with a chainsaw Often the cake has a ribbon around the bottom so that hides any imperfections but I loathe knowing that it's not perfect!

I'm curious to know what methods people use to get a nice clean finish at the bottom of their cakes. I've been mulling a few ideas around in my head and would be interested to see what other tricks people have come up with.

Thanks in advance!

Setty

just a pizza cutter, works every time!

Same here. Pizza cutter.

Pizza cutter or sharp paring knife.

Rae

yep, pizza cutter - best thing ever

I have to echo everyone else's sentiment...pizza cutter, it works wonders.

Same here - pizza cutter!

Bring your cake beyond the edge of the turntable or table and 'pinch' (push) the excess fondant off using the cake board as a guide.

pizza cutter, lol

I use a very sharp paring knife... I trim excess fondant about an inch from the cake then use the smoother to push the excess into the cake until I see a crease then I use the crease as a guide and cut along that. Sometimes it's totally perfect and you can't even tell anything was done, other times, it's a mess... mostly good though, getting better. =D

I use a pizza cutter too! Obviously I'm just going to have to keep at it!
Thanks for the responses. Have a cake to do for this weekend so I'll cross my fingers that me and the pizza cutter have miraculously developed a harmonious relationship!

Setty

I use a pizza cutter too, I also think it helps if you keep the cutter stationary and spin your cake on the turn table, then it tends to not be as affected by stops and starts. That only works if you don't have a lot of excess. Keep at it, like all things in life, practice makes perfect, or at least acceptable to our perfectionist standards...

Sharp CLEAN paring knife, hold that and turn the table.

I also use a pizza cutter but have a problem just like Setty. What I need to know is exactly where do you position the cutter (ie, is the cutter blade parallel to the side of the cake or do you angle it in toward the cake?) Have any of you used the edge of the underlying cake board as a guide? I would like to get such a clean line at the bottom that I don't have to use ribbon or pearls. I've seen some very lovely staked cakes that appear seamless where the upper tier meets the one below ...that's my goal. Anyone with specific guideance or better yet a tutorial?

For the seamless look, you need to trim the fondant off like usual, then smooth the edge with your finger, then use the fondant smoother to push the side fondant on the cake down just a bit until the fondant at the bottom is perfectly to the bottom all the way around. Sometimes it's good enough like this and if you are working fast you can stack the cake first THEN do this to make sure, sure, sure that it meets the next cake. Sometimes you need to pipe a bead of royal icing at the join and smooth it to invisibility with your finger (think caulking).