Does anyone have any tips? I was wondering if one of those right-angle knives for drywall/mudding tape in corners might help. I've only made one square cake and that's because I can't figure out how to get a nice, clean edge to them. Maybe that would work with the top edges on rounds, too...

So, yeah. Any tips? Thank you!

Illy[/i]

I use the hot, wet spatula on my edges to get them sharp. I take a tall cup full of water, micro it, dip my angled spatula in, shake off the excess water and smooth the edges. I also touch just the tip of the spatula to the top edge and smooth it until it's nice and sharp. If you look at my photos or my slideshow (this shows 2 views of it), this is how I did the edges of the Harley cake.

i just checked out your slideshow, lisa, and think your cakes are wonderful. how do you get that quilted type effect on the top? its great. you are very talented. there are so many gifted people here at CakeCentral, i hope to learn much from all of you. and to think i found this website by accident. i am so glad i did

Thanks! It's done with a crusting buttercream and patterned paper towels. After the icing crusts, you place the paper towel on top and gently smooth it with your hand or a small roller (light touch).

are you seriouse!!!!!! you got that great pattern using "scrubbing circles"? i knew they were absorbant, but who knew they were artistic? i am going to go on the hunt in my house and see what i can find that might look neat on fondant. Thanks!!!!

tracey4, I get Viva Paper towels in Canada. They are a little harder to find but they are here.
Hugs Squirrelly Cakes

If you're looking to texture your icing, but want variety from the "scrubbing circles" another great idea is to use a (new/clean!) sponge. Dampen the sponge and then lightly press it into your crusted icing. Be careful not to get the sponge too wet...
It adds wonderful dimension to the base icing, and yes, it helps when you can't get your icing perfectly flat & snooth. The bigger the holes in the sponges, the more texture on your cakes.

My class instructor taught us this nifty little trick!

Those little make-up sponges work great for that too! And you can sponge on another colour of buttercream if you like or go for a stipple effect with the same colour.
Hugs Squirrelly

Evidently you can use a large variety of items for texturing icing. I had learned with the paper towels, and when I did the football I used fabric netting, and have since saved some of the plastic net from around those bags of on the vine tomatoes (just be sure they are clean!) It definitely does cover a lot of uh-ohs in the icing, in addition to being pretty!
Janice

I did something last night to get better edges, did not work completely but it did help.
I iced a single layer sheet cake and to get squarer edges I took my pamperedchef mini cutting board (bar size cutting board) and my 15" angled spatula and had them 'T' up to get a sharper edge. It worked pretty nifty.
I must say I think I got my cake the smoothest I have ever gotten. I did not have time to upload the pics, but I will this weekend sometime between the major house cleaning that needs to get done.

guess I'm still sleepy, but I can't get a mental picture as to how you did that with a cutting board and spatula m0use...Could you explain more for me please? (I know it's one of those "DUH" things coming!)

Sure, let me try again...
Take the small (mine is about 10"x5") cutting board and press it up along the side of the cake, take the angled spatula and place it on top of the cake on the cake edge butting it up along the cutting board.
Or you can do it vice versa, depending on how tall the sides of the cakes are.
Here's a pic- maybe it will help.

Whew! Okay now I get it, thanks so much for that tip, I'm going to give it a try! (I'll try just about anything once.)
Thank you m0use!

Your welcome, I think having the picture should make it easier for anyone to visualize what I was talking about.

Haha mouse - you give new meaning to the words draw me a picture - because you actually draw a picture! That's great!