How do you keep a christmas cake flat to ice?

It's nearly that time of year again and I will be doing the usual and baking my christmas cake soon, I have done this for the past couple of years and have almost perfected the cake but I need some help on decorating it.....





I would like to ice it but does anyone know how to make the top of the cake flat so there are no bumps under the icing?





Any tips will be greatly appreciated, thanks!|||When I worked for a bakery, we used to turn the cakes over to ice, so therefore you are icing the bottom of the cake which is perfectly flat, and the weight of the cake will flatten out the new cake base(!) so it will be level. Hope this helps.|||I do a weekly rum and brandy syrup wash, and rotate them top to bottom, this flattens them, I keep them wrapped in parchment and plastic wrap, but waxed paper and a sealed container works to, something like an inexpensive storage box, I keep mine in my cool storage room.|||Very carefully slice off the top...job done.