My (adult) daughter and I just finished the level 1 course so we've only made about 4 cakes up to this point. Tonight we made a pumpkin cake and when it came to adding the eyes, nose and mouth we didn't know what to do first. Should we have piped the features in first then frosted the rest of the cake? Should we have frosted the cake first THEN done the eyes, nose and mouth? The cake turned out really cute but we weren't completely happy with the eyes, nose and mouth plus it took forever to get a nice smooth look on those areas. We were afraid of smearing the frosting into the rest of the cake. How do you experienced decorators do it so beautifully?

Well, I outline all the features first, using a writing tip likely with black for this kind of thing, then fill in whenever, it doesn't really matter. I take it you were using a star tip to fill in the pumpkin, right?
Hugs Squirrelly