It's literally driving me insane. every time i cut the "skirt" off the cake, i always end up cutting to close to the cake, and i end up tearing the fondant at the bottom. so my question is tuck or not to tuck? lol. for realz. do you tuck the extra fondant under the cake/cake board? i heard if you leave a 1/4 of an inch border, you can actually take a pairing knife and little by little cut excess off. thanks all.

I use a pizza cutter and cut it even with the bottom. I don't tuck mine under because usually I put on some type of border.

I cut most of it off with a pizza cutter, then smooth again, then cut close to the cake with the pizza cutter. No tearing!

I use a pizza cutter and leave about 5mm of fondant and then I just tuck in with a fondant smoother. If there is any left over, then I use a really sharp paring knife and cut off the extra.

I cut most off with the pizza cutter, but don't try too hard to cut right next to the cake at first, because I usually mess it up! Then I go around more slowly to get a closer cut, I get down to eye level and hold the pizza cutter as close to parallel with the cake as I can and trim it that way.

I've seen the "tuck" method, but since my cake boards are cut to fit the cake, I think the frosting would get smooshed on the bottom if I tried...

I used to have this problem when cutting my fondant off the cake. I always thought I was cutting nice and straight and when it finished I realised there were parts where you could see the cake. Now I've kind of worked out to leave a tiny bit sticking out so I'm not cutting so close to the cake, then actually smoothing that in with the icing smoother. You could always try this and then if it looks like you've left too much you can always trim more bits off. It obviously takes a few extra minutes but I was happier with The result! Although if you do leave too much then smooth it you end up with it looking like a bit of a fold