The title says it all.....how do you smooth IMBC? I would love to use this recipe in most cases just because of the taste.....please help!

Thanks!

Crumb coat your cake and put it in the fridge til the icing hardens.

Then glob a bunch of icing on top of the cake. Start smoothing the top and pushing the icing over the edges of the cake.

Get the top pretty smooth and even, then work the icing onto the sides of the cake. Hopefully your cake is on a cake board the same size as the cake--board is a smidge bigger-- Take a bench scraper (you can use a spatula) place it against the board resting on the turntable. Turn the turntable while holding the scraper in place. Do this a couple times around, removing the excess icing from the scraper into the bowl.

Now sweep the extra icing at the top edge onto the top of the cake.

If you have some lines you can go over them with a hot spatula, or you can put the cake in the fridge til it hardens, then rub out the line with the warmth from your finger.

HTH

This will work with IMBC?

IMBC is the only icing I use. Though this method would work for any icing. I don't know what exactly you think you may have a problem with. Maybe you can be more specific. IMBC will never crust, so you can't use the viva method with it. But it does harden when refrigerated or frozen. You can put fondant over it (refrigerate the iced cake first). You can also pipe with it.

It's something you should make up and try. I definitely wouldn't suggest to bring it to a wilton class--you need the decorator icing for that.

Although I wouldn't necessarily say I got my IMBC cakes smooth ENOUGH I'll tell you what really worked for me: a) the spatula method described by leta, and b) an extended version of the finger method described by leta:

In my case, I frosted the cakes while frozen. The cold cake allowed the frosting to firm up FAST while working on it, rather than having to stick in the fridge and wait. I used the spatula as a scraper to get it as smooth as I could, but then I washed thoroughly and used my hands. The heat from my hands melted the frosting just barely enough (similar to dipping spatula in warm water) that it smoothed easily...because the cake was still so cold that the frosting re-hardened as I went. I did this on my two blue cakes. Not perfect, but pretty smooth considering they are my first two cakes, and with practice I'm sure I'll get better results.

If you do this while frozen though, do watch for condensation while they come to room temp. I didn't have a prob. w/the first cake but it was a little apparent on the second one.

My IMBC turns out glassy smooth when I spray with fine mist of water, then smooth with a spatula. I know it sounds wierd but it works great. I've been asked if the cakes are covered in fondant they get so smooth.