For the life of me I cannot keep the crumbs out of my icing. I tried some of the tips I received like making sure the spatula didn't touch the cake. Maybe my cakes are too moist or something. I made a Red Velvet cake for new years and the darn thing looks like it has chicken pox. LOL Didn't stop the kids from eating it of course (or me either).

I read today that if you freeze/chill the tiers this helps. So if I froze them, do I dirty ice, freeze, unthaw and then ice, or do I dirty ice, freeze, then ice while frozen and then let unthaw?

You could also use an icing tip so that your spatula never touches the icing, until it has a thick icing coating. Or you could crumb coat, and then ice.

Icing tip:
http://www.wilton.com/decorating/icing/using-decorating-tip-789.cfm

Freeze your cakes after cooling and torting, and then crumb coat. A frozen cake ices beautifully for crumb coating! (Use this same method for carving!) You can then freeze again, covered in a layer of plastic if you do. Thaw before you give your actual layer of icing or fondant, but leave the plastic wrap on to thaw so that the condensation forms on the wrap and not on your icing. HTH!

Duh. I think I have that tip. I'm going to try it on my next cake.

Duh. I think I have that tip. I'm going to try it on my next cake.

I have the cake icer tip but I never use it. I'm too lazy to fill another bag I guess. Make sure you use a brush and brush the crumbs off the cake. Then take some of your buttercream and thin it, then slap it on there and really press down on the cake to seal in any crumbs.

Most of the time if you're picking up crumbs it's because you're digging into the crumb coat or your icing is too thick/stiff. Use thinned icing for your final coat. Use twice as much as you think you need, then use a scraper to go over it lightly. Hopefully you will minimize your crumbs!

I have the same problem with red velvet, though not with my other flavors. I just do a thin crumb coat first, chill well and then final coat.