to applying fondant smoothly to a square cake...or a cake that isn't just perfectly round?

There is a great article on doing square cake frosting .. here's the link... http://www.cakecentral.com/article51-How-To-Frost-a-Square-Cake.html

as far as smoothing the icing, I use a crusting buttercream icing and smooth with Viva papertowels after the final coat of icing has been applied (wait about 10-20 minutes after final coat of icing to do this)... hope this helps!!

I think elevation is the key to getting the fondant on nice and smooth. For instance..if you are doing an 8" square cake...put that on top of an 8" cake board and then elevate it, so that when you lay on the fondant it will hang down. Trim as much excess as you can and then start smoothing with a fondant smoother. I like to finish it off by smoothing with my hand...it slightly warms the fondant and helps it adhere to the BC underneath. Then finishing up by trimming off the excess fondant again.

Elevation...got it! But what do you do with the excess around the edges? Do you trim it off and smooth the fondant until that cut part molds back together to hide where you cut it? Am I making a lick of sense?

You can use a pizza cutter or, as some people have mentioned, a fabric wheel (just like a pizza cutter but about 1.5" across, available at fine sewing shops anywhere, replaceable cutting wheels as well).

Trim off the bulk of the excess with a sharp knife or scissors to about 1/2 to 3/4 inch away from where the cake meets the board, so that you have just a little bit of excess fondant to cut off for the final go.

For the final trim, you then go in with your wheel cutter at about a 45? angle, right at the line where the fondant meets the board. This will give you a nice, close trim right where you want it, snug up against the board.

This is probably easier on a round cake since you can sort of smooth and coax any excess material around the entire circumference. On a square cake, you have the very easy sides but that excess now all gathers at the corners. I haven't dome a fondant square cake yet, so I can't say exactly how to bets spread that excess around. But once it's all flat up against the cake without "bed" corners, the same principle for trimming applies.

Someone who's done fondant on a square cake could probably explain the best way to get rid of that "bed" corner look, aside from cutting a seam up the corner.

I'm no expert on covering square cakes with fondant, but i beleive you start with the corners and do the sides last. Fondant kind of stretches so you can get it positioned right. Just make sure you don't get a wrinkle or seam (only cut the bottom where the cake meets the board) becuase you can't patch fondant - at least not MMF.

Start in the centre of the cake.Stroke the icing towards the outside when the top is covered start at one corner. cup your hand and smooth the corner using a slight upwards motion. Do all four corners then the icing on the sides should more or less fall into place and use your hand just to smooth it into position. I run a pizza cutter around the base to remove the excess.

Just one word of warning be careful about elevating more than a few inches or gravity can cause the fondant to tear apart

The instructions given by MissBaritone are 100% perfect. I just covered a rectangular fondant cake last night and had done just as MissBaritone mentioned. I will post the cake today, still working on it.

So when you start on your corner smoothing upward do you not have excess fondant pushing to the sides? That's where I'm concerned. Maybe once I do it on a square cake it will make sense....either that or I need more caffeine to jump start my brain this morning! I was up way too late last night making Martha Stewart's chocolate cake!

No It just seems to fall into place. Basically you're moulding the fondant to the cake. All the excess is at the bottom and gets cut off with the pizza wheel

Okay then...I'm going in...wish me luck!

Just dive in that is the best way to learn. I have to admit I was sceptical at first, but after doing my first cake with MMF I found that after you cut of the excess, the wrinkles that I just knew would be there weren't.

Thanks CC

I actually do love working with fondant....I just haven't had a reason to tackle it on a square cake until now! lol

I had a problem with bad wrinkles at the bottom of a cake I covered in fondant - but in retrospect - I think it was because I rolled it too thinly so it could not absorb the excess at the bottom. Next time - I'm going to make a bigger batch - so I don't have to skimp.