Okay,
I am beginning to think the more I do this the worse I get. I am happy with my cakes when they are done because my decorations hide the icing but when I ice them I am just not satisfied. I just can't get them smooth and it seems the more I practice the worse they get. I don't know what I am doing wrong. I could sure use some word of encouragement and maybe some advice. I have another cake to do tonight that my son has to take to school. I will take pictures after I smooth it out and post them for everyone to see and maybe you can tell me what you think. I have a new cake to post. I will do that a little later. I just needed to vent. I tried the paint roller last night. That didn't work at all. Maybe I got the wrong type of roller. I don't know. Suggestion greatly appreciated.
Bradymom.

The cakes in your pictures look pretty good to me. Have you tried the viva method? I' ve been doing this for a little over a year now and never had one that I'm completly happy with my smoothing, but is so fun we just have to keep trying.

This might help:

http://www.cakecentral.com/article10-How-To-Create-Faux-Fondant-The-Paper-Towel-Method----Viva.html

http://www.cakecentral.com/article6-Upside-Down-Icing-Technique-for-Perfectly-Smooth-Icing.html

http://tinyurl.com/yhbptt

http://tinyurl.com/uryj3


Determining the proper frosting consistency is very important, and does take time to learn. (At least it did for me.)