Smooth Buttercream How-to

I LOVE cake! I HEART cake! I would marry cake if I could! Yes I'm a freak like that! I also LOVE exclamation marks and I Love LOVE!!!!

I LOVE decorating cakes... I'm a beginner, a novice, a neophyte!

I am by no means good at cake decorating, but I like it and it's fun!

 I love the taste of buttercream but love the look of fondant. I do NOT like the taste of fondant! If I can just get a smooth finish I can nix the fondant!

Today I am trying out the paper towel method to get a smooth finish. More specifically the VIVA paper towel method. VIVA paper towels are the smoothest paper towels. They've got the smooth moves. ;)  This is my 3rd attempt using paper towels. On the first two attempts, my buttercream just stuck to the towel and looked horrible! I recently discovered you have to let your buttercream crust a bit. Touch the top of your cake and if it feels wet or if icing gets on your finger it's not ready to get toweled! Wait a few minutes and touch your cake... If it's dry to the touch it's ready to go go go!

I began by crumb coating my cake and setting it in the freezer for 15 minutes. Then I covered the crumb coat with a THICK layer of buttercream. Most of the buttercream will be scraped off so pile it on!

After I covered it with a thick layer of BC I began scraping and smoothing around the edges and on top. I formed a little crown around the top edge. This will help me get a straight edge later.

I scraped quite a bit of frosting off the sides and the top and I let the cake sit for a few minutes.

Once my cake was ready I took my paper towel and placed it on the side of the cake and gently smoothed the cake with my hand.

The side is a lot smoother. I continued smoothing around the sides.

Then I GENTLY smoothed the top until I liked how it looked.

All done! Trying this on three different cakes, I finally achieved the smooth finish I was hoping to get!
Now I'm going to play around with a few decorations that I have on hand and then gobble this dark chocolate cake with buttercream frosting!

Here's a tiny bit better picture... The photo quality is CRAPTASTIC! I apologize! I had to use my cell phone to snap the pictures! UGH!

Fondant Loop Bow topper that I made.

I thought it was CEEEUTE with the fondant bow and the zebra ribbon! I didn't secure the ribbon... It's just posing real quick for a picture!

Simple and sweet...