Any tips? The first one looks like indentations from a small fondant rolling pin.

It's just spatula work. easy.

My mother doesn't decorate cakes but for as long as I can remember she has iced cakes with a wide spatula that looks much like the first cake. I always thought her cakes were pretty.

It was done with a spatula. I did a wedding cake similar to the second one a couple years back.

Oh, this is easy. I spent time with a guy who did ceilings. That's one maybe a husband or boyfriend can help you with, you just take a wide spatula and keep layering big giant sweeps over top of each other. The bottom is even easier. I frost the cake a little thick, cause I'll wipe most of it off, make sure the top is nice, smooth, and pretty, then I gently take the rounded end of the Wilton thin spatula and sweep straight up from the bottom of the cake towards the top edge. Easy. I had a three tier, not in my pics, done in an hour. But, the small brown/tan with pink flowers in my pics was done this same way. I love the style.

It's what I refer to as "pretty butter-knife iced".

hi all, the bottom one, i saw cake boss use a long 4 sided piece of wood and kind of walked it around the cake, of course he did it in about 2 seconds, but it did look like the second one

I saw similar cakes of both cake in one of my cake books. On the first picture that you posted they used a spoon and in the second a spatula or butter knife. Hope this helps.