I sometimes use RI instead of fondant to cover my cake drums. I can never get it to be perfectly smooth. I'd rather use RI because it cuts down on the cost and weight of the whole cake. I got the idea from Colette Peters (I think). I've tried large metal spatula and scrapers, added more water to RI, etc. but I still can't make all nice and smooth. Any tips? Thanks!

I'd think you'd do it like you would flood a cookie. Pour it on and shake the board until it smooths out and gets to the edge. It would have to be slightly thinned and would take a while to set up completely.

I just use fondant. It doesn't have to be thick. I roll mine about 1/16th of an inch thick to cover boards.

Wouldn't it be the same as icing the surface of a cake? Put your drum on a turntable, spread the RI out, spin the turntable while you scrape off the excess with your knife or scraper, and clean up the sides.

Hmmm... will try flooding and see what happens... Thank you both for your responses.

You could use a spatula, but royal doesn't smooth quite the same as BC... you'd likely still have marks.

If you do the flooding, you will have to do it WELL in advance so it has time to completely set up.

This might sound odd, but sandpaper works smoothing royal icing.

At the Wilton School, they make dummy cakes with royal icing, smoothed as much as possible. Once they're dry, you can sandpaper any small blemishes.

I done this for dummy cakes. The royal icing needs to be thinned down, almost to flood consistency but not quite. You do thin coats, very thin, and you would need 3 or 4 coats to make a nice finish, drying inbetween coats. Then use very fine sandpapper (unless it's for show work, they mark down if they see that). I find it very hard to smooth my royal on a dummy and it really does sink a hole in your confidence.

Does your RI have lumps in it? Even if it doesn't have visible lumps, one way of getting perfectly lump-free RI is to put it thru a clean nylon stocking. I know what you are thinking.... But yes, this is what I learned when taking an Australian Stringwork class.

I think we used a "light support" knee hi and cut out a large square from the stocking.

Put a dollop of RI in the center & pull up the corners to envelope the icing.

Hold the nylon/icing ball just inside of a disposable decorating bag (with the tip clipped off), pinch the decorating bag closed at the top of the nylon/icing ball then, while keeping the bag pinched closed with one hand, pull up the nylon corners with the other hand-squeezing the RI down into the bag. Ta-Da! All the ikky lumps are left on the nylon square.

Now smooth out the icing on your board. If you have the time and want it perfect- do a thin layer and let it dry. Lightly sand, then "spackle" any air holes with more RI. Let dry again.

HTH

Yup -- sand paper. In Toba Garrett's class, she taught us to ice the board, let it dry, sand it. Then do another layer of royal, dry, and sand again. She never leaves the board just plain though -- she would do decorative icing on the board as well.

That's how I learned it. Use a 2" wide painting brush, wicked thin runny royal and paint it on in a very thin layer. Place the dummy into the oven with just the pilot light or internal light of the oven on for a half hour then remove and go outside on the porch and use an extra fine sand paper to gently rub it smooth. Then re-coat with runny RI and dry and sand and repeat about 4 times until you have a nice finish. VERY time consuming.

But cheap!

Thank you all for the input! Didn't know there were various techniques. Will try and see!