I recently purchased some acrylic cake circles and scrapers and was so excited about using them because the video tutorials made it looks so easy. Well, I just tried them out for the first time and cake was sliding all over! I placed the cardboard cake round directly on the bottom disc, and used a parchment round with dabs of buttercream on the top disc, as they did in the videos.

whenever I went to add icing or scrape it smooth, the cake slid back and forth. So frustrating!

Has anyone else had this issue, and how did you rectify it?

I use pieces of the grip shelf liner to keep the disk from slipping.  I put a piece between the turntable and the bottom disk and another piece between the disk and the cardboard cake round.  The shelf liner also creates a gap between the cardboard and the acrylic disk so it is easier to separate the two.

The cover the top disk with Glad Press and Seal instead of parchment paper.

Definitely keep using the baking paper under the top disc for best results.

Here is how I do it.

Step 1. Cut baking paper using Stanley knife to cut around the acrylic disc.

Step 2. Attach paper to disc using smears of buttercream, really squish it down  when you put the paper on so that any excess squishes out the edges, clean it up and pop in the fridge to set for a few minutes.

Step 3. Pull out top disc and put it on your bench, apply buttercream/ganache etc to disc then put cake on top and central as possible, you will be able to slide it in to place.

Step 4. Apply a tiny bit of buttercream/ganache to the cake board which in now on top of your cake and centre the acrylic disc using bench scraper etc to line up your boards (do this on a cake board so you can spin it and check the centre at different points).

Step 5. Apply buttercream/ganache very carefully around the acrylic circle that is on the top (eventually what will be the bottom). If you need to, at this point put it in the fridge to set before going any further.

Step 6. Apply liberal amounts of buttercream/ganache and gently scrape off what you don't need, I do mine in sections so that I don't need lots of extra icing but I can apply lots to each spot.

Step 7. Put it in the fridge to set.

Step 8. Once set well slide a super fine spatula (I use an artists palette knife) under the edge of the acrylic circle that is on the top (soon to be bottom) of the cake until it pops off, acrefully flip the cake, slide the pallete knife BETWEEN the BAKING PAPER and your ACRYLIC CIRCLE until it also pops off (if it's not popping off then you need to let your cake set up longer). Peel off your baking paper and if necessary fill in any air pockets and smooth them and you are done.

That should say in point 4 to do it on a turntable not on a cake board sorry but I can't edit it.

Also when applying the buttercream/ganache to the board that doesn't have the baking paper I actually apply the icing in an upwards motion rather than the usual side to side motion, that way you get a good bond between the cake and the acrylic and icing without pushing the circle all around.... wish I could edit posts sometimes lol

Thanks for the detailed description on how you use the acrylic circles, bubs1stbirthday.  Makes perfect sense!

Thank you, bubs1stbirthday! Sounds like popping it in and out of the fridge will help it to set up and help with slipping. 

May I ask, the cake pictured in your profile- is that buttercream or fondant? It's so smooth and perfect and what I aspire to!

My buttercream layer turned out very bumpy and not straight. :( I clearly need practice with these cake circles and/or a better recipe for BC. 

That cake is done in ganache, I prefer it as it gives you such a beautiful finish that is easy to handle and tastes great :-) 

If your icing didn't smooth with the acrylics then you probably didn't have enough on, the goal is to simply apply 'too much' icing then wipe the excess off using the acrylics to do all the levelling work for you.