When covering a cake with fondant that has been embossed with an impression mat, how on earth do you smooth it down the side of the cake without messing up the pattern?? I tried this for the first time today, and was not happy with the result. Is there a trick?

i was always taught to use the impression mat AFTER the fondant is on the cake (with the exception of ribbons)
HTH

I was shown how to do that by a Caljava rep at the OSSAS last year. He took a piece of foam that they use to package their pre-made flowers and used it to smooth the fondant. Worked great and no mess-up of the impressions....

Can you describe this foam? Is it soft?

I was told to use a sponge. Not the hard kitchen type, but the soft foam type sponge. I did a leather tooled cake and it was really hard, but with a few practice rounds I found that gentle hands and the sponge worked best. The top tier I just couldn't get right because of that very issue. I was so fed up I re-did the bottom layer at the last minute with the sponge and it really did work better. Now every time I look at the pictures I wish I had re-done the top also!!

Yes, it was soft foam like you would package something fragile with. Kind of like a sponge....