I'm doing a cake for a friend's wedding and she wants whipped icing on it. The design doesn't have a lot of piping on it, just a few dots and dragees but I need some tips on how to get a smooth look with this. I haven't really worked with it before and now I'm a little nervous. Any help is appreciated...

bumping myself....

Hot satchula works best for me

make sure it is not overwhipped, and just use a hot clean spatula, just like you would do with buttercream.

My opinion I think whipped icing is easier to smooth than BC. Sometimes when I mix mine I add a little meringue powder to the batch to help it stabilize it a bit, but i know many who don't add anything and it turns out fine.

Like they said just a clean hot spatula and you'll be fine!

If you add meringue powder does that change the consistency or the flavor? How much do you add?

If you add meringue powder does that change the consistency or the flavor? How much do you add?

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_1297395.html

Here's the link to the sort of design she wants...is this doable with whipped?

Wilton has a stablilized whipped cream icing recipe:
add 2 Tbsp powdered sugar to 1 cup heavy cream and whip to soft peak stage, then add 2 Tbsp piping gel (and vanilla extract if you want) and whip to stiff peaks. (but not too stiff or it gets too much air and it will never smooth out.) There are other recipes for stablilized whipped cream here on CC or on the internet. I'm not sure about the amount of meringue powder (i have used a commercial product called Whip-Cream Aid which I think is very similar to meringue powder and we used about the same amount as you would with the piping gel) It shouldn't affect the taste or consisitency of the icing. You should be ok to do that design in whipped cream as long as it is white on white or cream I wouldn't recommend piping dark colors onto whipped cream because for me they always bleed.