I want to texture buttercream (horizontal spiral) around a cake by pressing with the tip of my spatula as I turn the cake.  When I practice this technique, my spatula gets too close to the cake in places and makes the cake slightly visible in those spots.  I was thinking about crumb coating with white chocolate ganache, letting it set up, then filling the gap between the ganache and the board with buttercream and then texturing.  I'm thinking that would at least hide the darker cake in the thin spots where I've dragged my spatula tip a little too hard.  Would buttercream adhere to the ganache?  I prefer SMBC, but if ABC would work better I'm not opposed to that.  Any advice?

AHow thin is your buttercream layer that you're digging into that far into it? Sounds like you just need to layer it on thicker.

Yeah, that makes sense too.  My icing is as thick as my un-trimmed cake and the cardboard round.  I also thought about trimming my cake to allow for more icing.  I need to use the edge of the board as a guide.

AZ, correct me if I'm wrong, but did I read in another thread that you recommend putting on a thin coat of SMBC, let harden up in the fridge and then apply another coat on top to texture -  or is that unnecessary because crnewbold already has ganache as her base?

ANo, that was in reference to the rustic icing effect. And I ice normally for that, full layer, chill, then spread a thin messy/rustic layer over that. Sounds to me like the effect OP is going for can just be done immediately afyer smoothing the icing, with no extra steps involved, other than using a thicker layer.

Thanks.  Now I remember - rustic effect

Thanks both of you.  I think I'll trim my cake to allow for a thicker layer of icing.  Trimming will also ensure the cake depth is consistent too so there will be less chance that I'll get too close to the cake in spots (as long as I keep my pressure steady).

Just to follow up, SMBC did adhere to ganache.  Though I did trim my cake, I decided to crumb coat with white chocolate ganache because I wanted to mask the darker color of the cake in case I applied too much pressure while texturing (I'm a novice).

Glad it worked out for you.