Wanted To Share My Smooth Icing Trick
Decorating By DiscoLady Updated 1 Feb 2006 , 7:49am by Schmoop
I've started using a pieice of soft cloth to smooth my buttercream and find that it works miracles. I have always struggled with getting my icing smooth...the hot water and all that just wasn't cuttin the mustard...and it was always the most frustrating part of making my cakes 
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Iwill post a before and after photo.
You can begin smoothing the cake right after you've finished icing. As a matter of fact it works better when the icing HASN'T crusted. The soft cloth works especially well because you can feel the bumps and ridges beneath your fingertips and apply pressure accordingly; just peek and smooth, peek and smooth. BTW I use a crusting buttercream.
I love applying my decorations to a perfectly smooth cake now!
I hope you will try it if you're struggling too.
(this is my first time posting a picture so I hope it works)
Wow thats awesome, thanks for sharing 
What kind of cloth do you use...like a kitchen towel?
I want a smooth cake!!! Yes please tell us what kind of cloth you used!!
Thanks!!
Do you use a lens cloth? and how do you avoid getting lint/fuzzies on the cake? 
Wow, what a difference!! I would love to know what type of cloth you used also. I have tried everything and still haven't come up with a completely smooth surface. Thanks for the wonderful tip!!
Tanya
I'm curious too. I use that trick where you run your spatula under VERY hot water, dry it quickly, then smooth. It works great! My friend from Johnson & Wales pastry school taught me that one.
I also used to work at a bakery where they blotted a damp sponge on the cake top to even and texture, but I've never seen a towel. How neat!
Does anyone have a trick for getting square corners clean and sharp? I can ice a round cake very smooth, but those squares and sheets always frustrate me!
WOW...now that's smooth! I'm a little confused as to how you keep the cloth from sticking to the icing if you don't wait until it crusts. Is it just a dry cloth or is it dampened? and what exactly, did you use? Please give more details!!!
Your keeping us in suspence, 
it's killing us. 
PPLLLLLEEAASSEE tell us 
Gee, I see I caused quite a commotion...but let me tell you when I first tried this I was quite excited about it too...and I can't take all the credit for this either, this is a tip I picked up in Ladycakes.com
Right now I am using a piece of cotton jersey (I'm pretty sure anyway) the tip specified "any tight woven cloth".
The cloth is dry and it will not stick to the icing. I use the Wilton "buttercream" recipe which contains NO butter, just shortening, so it crusts quite well. I don't know how this technique will work on a true buttercream, but please feel free to try and let us know. I waited too long once to smooth the cake and it DID NOT work on the crusted icing. so you should start working it right away.
As for fuzzies...I've caught a few but I just pick them off with a toothpick afterward; there aren't a whole lot.
I can't say how hygenic this technique is but I do not use bleach or dryer sheets when I dry this cloth.
I'm sure there are many chemicals in everything from the plastics and paper in our piping bags and cake boards. I'm also sure that a lot of you use the colored florist foils that are not FDA approved. And if you want to get really technical...Do you know that 75% of the dust in the air is made up of human skin? Think about that the next time you take a bite of cake that's been sitting out for a few hours with that stuff settling on it (urp!) 
Hope this info. helps some of you.
I've permanently retired my hot spatula and I've also been happily sift-free for about a year...but that's another story!!
Does anyone have a trick for getting square corners clean and sharp? I can ice a round cake very smooth, but those squares and sheets always frustrate me!
Here you go:
http://www.cakecentral.com/article51-How-To-Frost-a-Square-Cake.html
I was going to say a cloth baby diaper....new of course is what I see my aunt use, and what a few bakeries around here use..... I have yet to try it...
Try using interfacing from your fabric store that works great to . I tried to use the viva towel and it left marks. I had read about the interfacing and tried it I won't use anything else.
It's true! I no longer sift my powdered sugar. NEVER NEVER NEVER!
Errrr...that is only if it's a bag that I have already opened and has been sitting(I think it has to do with the air entering the bag).
Otherwise if it's a new bag I just dump it in the mixer and
NO LUMPS...HONEST!!
I've saved soooooo much time!
P.S. I tried parchment too but I love my little cloth (no waiting and it doesn't stick) 
Viva paper towels work great for me and since you use a fresh one every time they can't be any less hygenic than the foil I use to cover my cake boards.
I also use the paper towel or even clean fingers to neaten up my corners as well (someone asked about that earlier.)
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