Electric bc smother for sides of cake

Seriously?  I would never buy that.  Just practice with a good buttercream recipe and a bench scraper and you can get the sides of your cake smooth.
 

WTH? How could something like that ever work?

All you need is a good bench scraper and a roll of Viva paper towels!!!

Could you post a pic of this?  or a website?  I have never seen one!!
 

I've seen pictures of factory machines that do this, but never anything for a home kitchen.

Check out the round cakes at about 2:47. That icing looks like it's made of plastic, though. Yuck. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqhAZcrXm6o

Don't think I would want a cake made from those machines!! Looks like those would be shipped worldwide and most of the cakes all look the same!! No personal touch!!Yuck!!!! If they are in factories in China they probably make the cake from part flour, part cardboard!!! Not to mention all the preservatives that go in them!!
 

What butter cream recipe are you using? Is it a crusting one? If it's a crusting one you can smooth your cake out as goof as you can get it than let it sit for like 20 minutes to let it crust up than with a viva paper towel place the paper towel over your cake and gently rub the cake. Move the paper towel around top and sides you can get a cake really smooth doing this. Also crumb coating than putting it in the frig for awhile to firm up helps a lot too. Go to owe.designmeacake.com and watch her video om how to frost a bottercream cake

Opps that website is www.designmeacake.com

Last year I took a class on icing cakes at White Flower sake shop in Akron OH the girls at this particular shop used a Stainless steel 6" spackler with a handle. WORKS GREAT! It gives me better control than I get with a spatula or bench scraper.

There is a website called Craftsy and that site offers a video tutorial on frosting with buttercream and It's freeeee!. :o) I like free!

Also! It was refreshing to watch a few of the classes and realize that the famous cake decorators make mistakes too and dont get the frosting perfect on the first try either! Just keep going!

Edited by BomCakes - 12/5/12 at 4:00pm

It doesn't matter what kind of buttercream you use.  None of my recipes crust and they smooth beautifully.  I don't think you should need a paper towel or roller or anything else to smooth a cake.  Just get a bench scraper and a cake dummy and practice.  I can ice huge tiers in 5-10 minutes, but I have also been decorating for a long time so I have had more than my fair share of practice.
 

OMG! Costumeczar - I watched that video and was absolutely mesmerized!!!  What an amazing machine!  Think Buddy put a set up like this in his new factory?  I can't imagine there are alot of places that do enough volume to justify something like this, but it was sure entertaining to watch.  Thanks for posting it!!!!

I've seen several of the Unifiller videos in the past, and to me it looks like they are sucking the soul out of cake decorating. 

Wow. Thank you for sharing.

What a great link to send clients who say "How much? It's only cake. But I can get cheaper from X store" (fill in the blank). This demonstrates fantastically what you get (or don't get) when you buy a 'shop bought' cake. What you don't get is skillmanship, craft, individualism, art, attention to detail, affection, love.... And so many other things that go into our cakes.

Super clever and really fascinating to watch, but yuck! Not for me, thanks.