Anyone know how to ice a waisted tier smooth? I use a bench scraper and non crusting buttercream so papertowel to smooth would be out of the question. Any trick to doing this?

The only thing I can think of would be to use a curved utensil. By noncrusting do you mean IMBC or SMBC? The bakery I work at has a non crusting BC, but it is shortening based (similar to Whimsical Bakehouse BC).

Maybe you could use just the tip part of a metal spatula, very light pressure. Start at the bottom or top, whatever, and just keep spinning the turntable as you SLOWLY move the spatula down/up.

But I've never done a waisted tier. Sounds like fun.

Try a small rectangle of acetate - like the backing of an icing sheet or chocolate transfer sheet - maybe 4" by 4" and slightly round off the sharp corners. You can use your fingers behind it and thumb in front of it to gently shape it to almost any weird contours. If you use clear goods, put a sticker on it so you'll be able to find it when you put it down

Good idea ibmoser! I never thought to use something flexible. I checked this thread earlier and then checked out Cake Wrecks. They happen to be showing a few videos today showing this exact technique! How funny is that? You should check it out Cib, they're actually amazing to watch.

http://cakewrecks.squarespace.com/

I saw a tutorial for making bc look like fondant where someone took a 2L soda bottle and made a scraper to smooth the icing. It had a curved edge to it. I wonder if you could fabricate something similar to ice your cake with.