I stink at smoothing buttercream!!!! - Page 2

Corinnie77, How did it work for you? Did you have success? I am excited to try some of these suggestions tomorrow!

I see this post is a few weeks old but thought I would put a utube video that shows how to smooth buttercream .

m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=6Vgcx5GZTnM&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D6Vgcx5GZTnM

I've been decorating cakes for decades, and I JUST NOW figured out that my buttercream is probably too stiff.  No matter what I did, it wouldn't smooth out.  My next cake will be done tomorrow, and I'm going for a much thinner icing this time.  Bet it'll work out better.  I'll report back. 

I'll be looking for your post to see how it turned out for you. I never use to crumb coat and just by accident last year I was in a rush to go somewhere so I put a thin layer of icing on and put my cake in the frig for a few hours until I had time to finish decorating it, when I took it out and put a second coat on it to cover it better it went on SOOO much easier! Now I know a lot of people don't even crumb coat but I just do what works best for me. And to the OP it does take time and practice.

Hi there,
I see that you have a sheet cake to do, I've read that those are harder to do than a round cake just because it's hard to do sharp corners. So you'll need to practice on square cakes too. Practice makes perfect.

OK...I said I'd report back in after I thinned my icing. 

 

It helped a LOT!  My standard answer to the "How can I get my icing smoother?" question will now be..."Thin your icing!"  I am still having problems, but it will get better now, I'm sure.  The concept of putting too much on...and scraping off the excess...is easier said than done.  It requires a steady hand and even pressure.  I had sections where it was thinner than others, which seemed fine at first, but when I started sharpening the edges and corners, where there was an excess of icing I had issues.  I also need to work on getting it smoother while it's still soft.  Once it crusted, I had marks that I just couldn't smooth out.  BUT, having said all that - it was so, so much better with thinner icing.   Previously, my texture was like stiffly beaten egg whites.  Now, it's more like soft peaks. 

 

 

Sorry...I don't understand why this photo is sideways.  It is NOT sideways in my graphics software.  Frustrating!

Hey, I think you did an excellent job!!! It can only get better each time you smooth out your cakes!!! YEAH!!!! You did pretty good!!!
 

You might want to invest in the icer tip and a big bag.  That way you apply the icing in an even coat so when you go to remove it, it is easier for it to be even when you are done.

Glad you are making progress.

the best tip I have found to smoothing cakes is to have a spray bottle handy!! Take an offset spatula (or better yet a bench scraper!!) and roughly apply the buttercream(don't need to worry about smoothing it out yet just apply it nicely) then LIGHTLY spray the icing with the water from the spray bottle and use the bench scraper to smooth out the icing and get the excess water off. Sometimes this may be tricky depending on your BC recipe so not to much water is more! Hope this helped!!

I use a 12" scraper. Using a turn table, I start with the scraper in my right hand and I position it on the side of cake. Then I cross my other hand under and around to the opposite side of the cake. Using one sweeping motion, I turn the cake and keep light pressure on the scraper. I go around the cake in one swipe. It will smooth about 90% of the edge in one sweep, leaving only one smoother line.