Hi people. I'm new to the cake forum and the whole decorating ordeal. I made a cake recently and covered it with fondant but the sides are lumpy. That's because the sides of my cake were lumpy before I put the fondant on. So my question is how can I get my cakes to rise all the same height all around and how can I smoothen the sides out?

Welcome to Cake Central. There is lot of information in these threads.

Most cakes have to be trimmed flat on the top. You can limit the bump, some, by using the Bake-Even strips (Wilton) around the outside of the pans. It can also help to use an inverted flower nail in the pan as a heating core.

Once the cakes are all level, you can get a much smoother surface.

If your cake pans have slanted sides, you cakes will need to be trimmed, or you can use icing to fill the gap. "Professional" cake pans have sides that are straight up and down, to avoid the angles.

Under fondant, don't use too much buttercream. that can cause more bumps. After that, it just takes practice.

There is a video for applying fondant at atecousa.com That might help.

Thank you Joann