I am still new at cake decorating. Got into it in order to learn how to make the character cakes for my daughter and fell in love with fondant. However, I am still not very good at it. I really enjoy doing it but my cakes have not been flawless to date. I have two common problems:

1. When I apply the buttercream (not my forte at all!) I finally managed to get it as smooth as I can after many hours of reading cake central and lots of youtube watching.

2. When I apply the fondant the buttercream always bulges out at the bottom and I can't see to apply the fondant flawlessly without it pleating.

Not quite sure what else I can do (other than practice I guess) to fix these two problems I get in every cake. To date I have only used wilton's prepared fondant but i've read great things about Satin Ice so I want to give that one a try. Any suggestions for a novice decorator would be great! Thank so much.

The technique I use to avoid the pleating, is to leave your fondant a little thicker, then when you start smoothing the sides with your hands first, smooth from top to bottom. When you get close to the bottom, pull the fondant away from the cake at the bottom while you are smoothing down with the other hand. It lets the fondant stretch a little as you use your hand to gently smooth straight down, then just cut off that extra. Hope that helps.

If your buttercream is bulging at the bottom, you probably have too much buttercream on it. I've had this happen a few times and it bugs me to no end because it's always been when it's too late to do anything about it.

Thank you for your replies. I'll try putting less butter cream next time around. I've also ordered some Satin Ice fondant which I can't wait to try. I've read great things about it!!