I tried the MM fondant over the weekend and while I love the presentation, I'm not crazy about chewing my frosting. So my question would be how do I get my frosting to smooth nicely and look the way fondant would? Are there any particular secrets?

So much depends on the type of frosting that you use. The type I use never gets a crust, but stays nice and soft forever. I put the cake in a cold fridge and leave it until the icing gets good and cold. I then can smooth the icing using a finger (WASHED, of course). The result isn't quite as smooth as fondant, but very close.

also, if you look in the "articles" section of this site...you can find something titled "faux fondant". also known as the viva paper towel method. that is a pretty good one to try!

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-19948-sugarshack.html

Nothing says it better than this post in my opinion by SugarShack

I found that using computer paper after your icing has crusted over, take your paper and put it over your cake and use a fondant smoother and go over your cake in circles. All your doing is moving the icing around to fill in areas that need it, to make a smooth looking cake. Hope this helps.