Ok...so I've never done a cake where I have had to frost a ball shaped anything, so I definately need advice on that and maybe the best kind of buttercream to use for that job. I purchased a womans upper torso cake pan so forming round part of the cake will not be a problem, frosting it is going to kill me...

I know the fondant woud give me a smoother look but I have never used fondant before (except as a road for the "Cars" cake in my pics)...I need a fondant recipe that is great for beginners to use and tastes good...If you cover something in fondant do you usually need to color the BC?

Also...could I go with a Ganache? (Sp?) I have never used that before either ....

or a pourable fondant....something i could pour over the cake to make it smooth????

I need the easiest way to get the smoothest look ....

(I would hope there was not reason for me to have to post this in the "naughty" cakes forum...but I did, just in case)

~Heather
TIA

IF any one has ANY advice I need it ASAP...I have to have the cake ready for FRIDAY NIGHT!!!!!

If you are more comfortable with bc then go with a crusting bc. I add 1-2 tblsp of meringue powder to my bc recipe to get it to crust. Then you let it sit for aobut 20 min, smooth with a viva paper towel, let it sit for another 15 min and then smooth with printer paper (thank you sugarshack for this awesome tip!!!). My most recently posted cakes have been done this way and my icing has never looked better!

Good luck with it!

ok.. to me fondant would be the easy way to go. That being said I have had no experience with handmade fondants so I can not offer any thoughts on that. If you do go with fondant there is no reason to color the crumb coat. A ganche glaze will give you a nice even coat deending of course how even the crumbcoat is underneath it. However you can not color ganache. If you want to go with bc you totally can just use a crusting bc and toss in the fridge after putting on the coats taking them out tafter to give them a smothing, using any of the smoothing techs listed on this site, viva,melvira method, or hot knife.
HTH

i have iced some spheres smooth (i guess not your kind of spheres ) i just iced them with my regular butter cream, i sort of beat it with my spatula to get air bubbles out, and used the viva paper towels. worked pretty well.

good luck!

I use an icer tip to put a layer of icing on the cake then I start smoothing. This pretty much gaurentees me that I will have enough icing on the cake even after I smooth. Instead of strying to make sure I have an even amount on the cake under the fondant.

I made a cake a couple of years ago, before I ever knew CC existed, It was a female torso and I had to rack my brain what could I use to get a smooth skin like appearance. I had lots of home experience with making chocolates so I decided that would be my medium. I iced a crumb coat first, then I put a hershey kiss in the center of both "spheres" (you know what I mean) I melted some merkins or whatever choc. I had (white) used oil colors to get a flesh color, (I think a little red & yellow) I slowly poured this choc. over the entire torso. Some smoothing with the spatula was needed, but overall the choc. worked very well. I piped some "scanty clothes" over the torso. Wished I would have thought of taking pics, but like I said this was before CC. Now I most likely would do as some other posters suggested, ice with BC smooth with viva then airbrush flesh color, would be alot quicker.
Best of luck on your cake.

I agree about using a crusting bc and then using the viva paper towel method -- you'll get it smooth instantly!

S.

And back on topic... (sorry 'bout that, just had to giggle at the mention of a merkin)...

When I want to ice something rounded in buttercream, I use a business card or a piece of acetate that same size as a business card and use it to round surfaces. You can bend it so it curves slightly, and it works really well.

I'm going to look for some links for the paper towel thing, but if anyone knows off hand the best links for "how to's woth Viva" that would be wonderful! Thanks ladies!

OMG, OMG, first thanks dodibug for correcting the spelling....now I must admit I did not know what a merkin was....jeez I am about falling out of my chair laughing after googling. Tears are streaming down my face. I bet I will never mis-spell merkin...err merken again