I could use a little help please!

I made a Teapot cake last night and although I was happy with the final outcome, I had to do allot of 'decorating' to cover my BC mistakes. I'm usually pretty ok at getting the BC fairly smooth on a round and a square cake. But for some reason this Ball cake threw me for a loop!
Any suggestions or ideas?? It seemed like the more tricks I tried that usually work, the more the icing messed up.

Thanks in advance for any help and I'll be posting a pic of my teapot cake soon.

Great question Michie21, I'll give you a little bump

I look forward to seeing your picture, but in the meantime I will bump your question up.

I've always used the viva paper towel method. Since your using your hand you can form it into a roundish shape to help smooth it off. Otherwise i've done the hot/cold water method. Hope that helps! If you've tried both maybe you could explain what went wrong so i can help you more. Lol

bump!!!!!

here is a similiar question and a good tip with a link in there about how they smooth the ball cake.

Leily

http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-23188-smooth.html+ball

oops forgot the link... you would think it was 6 in the morning instead of 6 at night

Leily

Hi everyone,

First off thank you for all the helpful tips! I really appriciate it!
Next, I have uploaded the pics of my teapot cake. They are in my photo section (I wasnt sure how to upload them into this forum).
It's certainly not my best work but that's why I did it as a trial, so I can perfect the one I'm acutally giving to a friend.

Michie21 all you have to do is ice the ball(make sure to get it as smooth as you possible can before you go on to let it crust) then let it crust for a good 30 minutes(just until you can touch it and it won't stikc). Then using Kleenex Viva brand paper towels(which are the only smooth paper towel i;ve seen, of course if you can find a different paper towel that is smooth with no patterns you can use it to, pattern paper towels can be used for pretty neat impressions). Then taking the paper towel you place it over the icing and smooth down wth her hand until it is smoothed to what you want(the smoother you got in the beggining the easier and quicker you'll get the crusted icing smooth).

Hope that makes sense! If it doesn't please let me know.

Thanks Ferret! That makes total sense! I've actually heard you can also do this with a piece of paper? I've never tried either method but I'm open to anything that will not make me want to chuck my ugly little teapot out the window

I will be making another teapot before Mothers' day and I promise to try the suggestions here and let everyone know how it goes!

HI everyone,

I read an article somewhere that said 'glazing' a cake before you ice it with butter cream also helps with having a smoother finish. The article said the glaze seals in the cake and creates a smooth surface for the butter cream.

Just wondering if anyone has tried this? Or even heard of it before? Also if anyone is interested, the artical gave a simple glaze recipe. Let me know and I can post the link to the article or just the recipe.

Michie21, I'd love the link to that article...My Wilton teacher told me that she glazes her cakes before Icing and now that I'm done with my classes, I can't remember what she said!!

Lkuptain- ok I goofed a bit..it wasn't an article, it was an e-mail.

"Glazes

Cakes can sometimes be varnished with glazes before they are iced.

Glazes have a great deal of sugar in them and along with the other ingredients can act as a kind of sealant that once cooled, prevents the cake from crumbling or the spatula from picking up parts of the cake as you are spreading the icing.

Glazes can be used to add a slight twist or tang to a cake that adds a pleasant element of surprise.

They also make the cake a little stiffer so it will more easily support icing and other decorations.

Here's a classic (and simple) glaze recipe...

Almond Glaze

4 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
2 teaspoons almond extract

Whisk ingredients together until smooth.
Pour over cake that has cooled for 15 minutes.

Thanks Michie21, That's perfect!! Nice newsletter, I think I'll sign up. Thanks again!

Michie21, Yeah, I was thinking it would be cool to get a fun e-mail with decorating tips in it. Thanks again!

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to say THANK YOU ALL!!! for all the tips and help. Last night I completed my second attempt at a "Teapot" cake and I was soooooo happy with the results! I ended up using a bunch of the tips from this forum and my icing came out smooth and wonderful! It was far from 'perfect' but SUCH a drastic improvement from last time. My friend, who has asked me to make the cake for her Mother's Day celebration this weekend was so happy with it when I brought it to her.

I will be posting pictures of it this weekend. So please check my pictures and let me know what you think.

Thanks again and I could NOT have done it with out everyone's help!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

~Michelle

HI again, just wanted to let you know i have uploaded my newest tea pot picture into my CakeCentral album.

Thanks again everyone and I'd love some feed back!