Smooth Icing

I Love your books and recipes here in South Carolina. I have a dream to create beautiful cakes such as yours. Some of mine have turned out pretty good, I must admit. I am a hobby baker, maybe someday will do more with it. My background is Art! I love to draw. Anyway...my problem is that I follow your directions on the buttercream to a tee, but it is so silky I can't get it smooth like your photos. I have not even attempted the roses yet. Do you use the House Buttercream or Kayes? Maybe it takes more practice but my husband and I are about to float away in buttercream. Are the photos hiding imperfections? I can deal with the little imperfections, but I like the base to be smooth. It is such a wonderful creamy taste, I want it to work. Other recipes are more 1/2 and 1/2 shortening/butter. Do you have any suggestions? I've tried both amounts of water and added more butter. Thank you. I hope you get this. Until then, I will be working away.

As for the buttercream, we use both the Kaye's and House. If we don't need a colored frosting we always use Kaye's since it is, in our opinion, more delicious. The House buttercream is used only when we need to tint the buttercream - even then, since we have it on hand, we will crumb with Kaye's and use the House for the final coat. I find Kaye's "silkier" and smoother and The House a bit airier. But both can have a smooth finish. It just takes practice and the correct tools.
1) Most importantly you need a turntable - without this tool (unless you can hold the cake on your fingertips and rotate your wrist) your cakes will not be as smooth.
2) Although I use an offset spatula to frost my cakes I often rely on a "metal scraper" (basically a level bench scraper without a wooden handle) to smooth the sides of my cakes. Because the scraper can rest on the turntable it is steadier.
3) Whether you are using a spatula or a scraper you must apply even pressure over the entire surface of the tool. For example, if more pressure is applied to the end of the spatula you will see indentations all over the buttercream.
4) Always have a pot or bowl of very hot water on hand. After every pass of the spatula or scraper dip it in the hot water then dry it off. The heat from the spatula will melt/smooth the buttercream surface. This will often eliminate small air bubbles.
5) I cover the entire surface of the cake with frosting. Then I smooth the sides. Ideally a lip of frosting will form around the top edge. Then, like an airplane landing and taking off again near the center of the cake, I slice off and spread the lip of buttercream. Clean off the spatula after each pass.