According to your textbook, icing is pretty utilitarian:
Icings, or frostings, are sweet coatings for cakes and other baked goods. Icings have three main functions: (1) They improve the keeping qualities of the cake by forming a protective coating around it. (2) They contribute flavor and richness. (3) They improve appearance
Cakes and Pies, Foundations of Restaurant Management and Culinary Arts
This is stupid. Icing does those three things, certainly… but icing is more than a tool to make your vanilla cake stay fresh a long time and look not-terrible.
These are the icing recipes and techniques you need to master during your third year. Do this and you will be successful when we can get to the really challenging stuff.
Cake is nothing more than a vehicle for getting more delicious frosting into my customer’s mouths.
Miguel, The Pastry Chef who yelled at me from the time I was 14 till my 16th birthday, everytime he caught me eating fancy doughnuts when i thought no one was looking.
Buttercream:
- A very popular icing mode of sugar and fat (usually butter or shortening, although shortening often has an unpleasant moulhleel). Most often used on cokes in different colors and flavors.
- Uses: Excellent all-around icing-rich, light, and fluffy. If cold, it must be softened before using. Often used for cupcakes, genoise, and butter cokes.
Foam icing:
- Also called boiled icing, foam icing is mode with hot sugar syrup. Bakers often use it on cokes such as lemon or chocolate. Use it the day it is mode and apply it in thick layers.
- Uses: Excellent with layer cakes. May be flavored with extracts or liqueur. Should not be used on cakes that will be frozen.
Fudge icing:
- Use cocoa/ chocolate, sugar, butter, and a liquid ( water or milk) to make fudge icings. Apply fudge icing while it is still warm. Fudge holds well in storage.
- Uses: Excellent on cupcakes, layer cakes, and sheet cokes. May be chocolate or vanilla flavored. ·
Ganache:
- This is a French term referring to a smooth mixture of chocolate and cream. Used to cover cakes or tortes. Also used to make truffles.
- Uses: Used as a glaze for cakes. May be whipped into a rich, smooth frosting. Ganache may be remelted over a water bath.
Glaze icing:
- This icing con be a simple corn syrup glaze, or it can include a fruit or chocolate component and flavor. Glazes add moisture, shine, and sometimes flavor to bakery products. They are usually drizzled rather than spread. Glaze icing is often purchased as a convenience product.
- Uses: Excellent for angel food and chiffon cakes. Flat icing or water icing may be used to finish Danish or coffee cokes.
Royal icing:
- Also called decorator’s icing, royal icing is mostly used for decorations. It dries brittle and is an uncooked icing. Make it from confectioners’ sugar and egg whites, and color it with food coloring if desired.
- Uses: Used for fine piping on wedding and specialty cakes, as well as decorations on cookies. May be used in gingerbread house production.
Icings that are almost always purchased
Fondant:
- A smooth and creamy icing. Cook fondant by combining sugar, water, and a glucose or a corn syrup. It becomes a shiny, nonsticky coating when dried. Fondant is often purchased as o convenience product, and it is available in different thicknesses.
- Uses: Bakers use it on eclairs, petits fours, cakes, and napoleons. May be used with specialty and wedding cakes.
MOST FREQUENTLY USED ICINGS
Classic Glaze Icing
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups powdered sugar sifted
- 3-5 tablespoons heavy cream
- ½ teaspoon flavored extract of choice
Instructions
- Place the sifted powdered sugar in a medium-size bowl.
- Add the heavy cream a tablespoon at a time, whisking well between each addition, until you reach the consistency you’d like your icing or drizzle to be.
- Add the flavor extract of your choice.
- Mix well and immediately drizzle or spread over cookies, cakes or breads.
Notes
Instead of cream you can use milk or half and half. You could also use lemon juice, pineapple juice, or apple cider…. any liquid will do the trick! Whatever liquid you choose, just add it slowly to the sugar, one tablespoon at a time, until the glaze is at the right consistency.
Royal Icing with Meringue Powder
Ingredients
- 4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted 480 g
- 3 tbsp meringue powder
- 8-10 tbsp room temperature water
- gel food coloring
Instructions
- In a large bowl using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat all of the icing ingredients together on high speed for 5 minutes. When lifting the whisk up off the icing, the icing should drizzle down and smooth out within 10-15 seconds. If it’s too thick, add a little more water. If it’s too thin, add a little more sifted confectioners’ sugar.
- Icing completely dries in about 2 hours at room temperature. If you’re layering royal icing onto cookies for specific designs and need it to set quickly, place cookies in the refrigerator to help speed it up.
BUTTERCREAMS
GENERAL NOTES ON MAKING BUTTERCREAM
“American Buttercream” is the icing of choice for most nonprofessionals – it is made by simply creaming together butter and confectioners sugar with milk or cream. If desired, vanilla extract or another flavoring is added. American buttercream is typically made from a ratio of 2:1…. sugar:butter by weight. This ratio makes this style of buttercream the sweetest of all the styles. It tastes nasty and is way too sweet. Don’t make it.
METHOD TIPS
- To properly cream the butter, the butter must start at room temperature. If the butter is too cold, the emulsion might break causing a separated buttercream.
- Buttercream is a blank canvas that can be flavored with virtually anything such as extracts, spices, melted chocolate, jams, and curds. As a general rule of thumb, the flavoring added to the buttercream should not exceed half the weight of the butter in the recipe.
- If the buttercream will not be used right away it must be stored in the refrigerator. It will firm up quite a bit and should be allowed to come back to room temperature before piping or spreading.
- Buttercream should always be served at room temperature. Because buttercream has such a high fat content, the texture will not be pleasant if eaten cold and will leave an extra greasy mouthfeel.
Italian Buttercream (Boiled Icing)
Ingredients
- 4 large egg whites room temperature
- 1 ⅓ cups granulated sugar 267g
- ¼ tsp salt optional
- 16 ounces unsalted butter 454g, room temperature, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract optional 4.9mL
- ¼ tsp cream of tartar 0.84g
- ⅓ cup water 79mL
Instructions
- Beat the egg whites, salt and cream of tartar, slowly add in ⅓ cup of sugar and continue beating until soft peaks form.
- While the eggs are getting whipped, add the remaining sugar and 1/3 cup water into a medium pot and place on medium-low heat.
- Stir until sugar melts and becomes clear.
- Maintain at medium-high heat until temperature reads 235-240*F.
- While the mixer is going on medium, drizzle the sugar syrup into the bowl down the side, avoiding the whisk attachment in a slow, steady, thin stream. At this point the meringue should be at the soft peak stage.
- Continue to run mixer until meringue is cool/tepid.
- Switch to a paddle attachment. Add room temperature butter into running mixer one tablespoon piece at a time.
- Add the salt and vanilla if using.
- It is common for the buttercream to start looking broken during this time. You might think it is ruined, but trust in the process. Keep adding the butter a little at a time and keep whipping. It will come back together into a silky smooth buttercream.
Notes
- Italian Meringue icing is made the EXACT same way (you just don’t add the butter).
- Although the term, Meringue, actually first appeared in a French cookbook written by François Massialot in 1692, interestingly there was an earlier recorded English manuscript book in 1604 by Lady Elinor Fettiplace, who gave a recipe that can be easily recognizable as a Swiss meringue cookie. She called this recipe “white biskit bread.”
- Vanilla Italian Meringue Buttercream: Add in 2 tsp vanilla extract at the end
- Chocolate Italian Meringue Buttercream: Melt 4 oz of bittersweet chocolate and allow to cool slightly. Fold it into the prepared buttercream.
- “Wedding Cake” Italian Meringue Buttercream: Add 1 tsp vanilla extract and 1/4 tsp almond extract
- Lemon Curd Italian Meringue Buttercream: Fold in 1 cup of lemon curd to the prepared buttercream
- Strawberry, Raspberry, or Blackberry Italian Meringue Buttercream: Fold in 1 cup of seedless preserves
Decorator’s Buttercream
Regular buttercream icing has a nasty habit of melting in Florida heat. To fix that problem, pastry chefs in the humid south have created a version that incorporates shortening and meringue powder to create a more stable product that is "pipe-able".
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature 2 sticks or 227g
- ½ cup shortening 115g
- 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice or 1 tsp lemon extract you can also use pure vanilla extract, almond extract, etc
- 6 cups powdered sugar, sifted just over a pound
- ¼ cup whole milk 60g
- 2 teaspoons meringue powder
- ¼ teaspoon table salt
Instructions
- In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream shortening and butter on medium-high until fully combined and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
- With mixer on low speed, add lemon juice (or extracts) and salt.
- Slowly add sugar, one cup at a time. Add meringue powder. (The mixture will appear dry.)
- Add in milk. Turn the mixer up to medium-high (or high) and beat until light and fluffy (approximately 5 to 8 minutes).
Notes
NOTES
You may need to add more milk to reach your desired consistency. Start with the 1/4 cup and if the buttercream is still too dry, add in more milk 1 tablespoon at a time until you reach the desired consistency. Make sure the mixer is on low speed when adding in milk and give it at least 30 seconds between each addition. The Frosting must be quite stiff in order to pipe.
Can be stored, tightly sealed in the refrigerator, for up to 3 months
Chocolate Buttercream
Ingredients
- 10 Tablespoons butter unsalted
- 1 ¼ cups unsweetened cocoa powder
- 5 ¼ cups powdered sugar sifted
- ⅔ cup milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
- In a saucepan, over low heat, melt butter. Stir in cocoa powder. Mixture will resemble a thick paste.
- Transfer chocolate mixture to a the bowl of a stand mixer. With mixer on low speed, add in powdered sugar and milk, alternating the two. Reserve a few tablespoons of milk. If frosting is thick, add in remaining milk. Add vanilla extract.
- Turn mixer to medium high speed and beat about 5 minutes, until frosting is smooth and creamy.
- Frost cake or cupcakes as desired.
CHOCOLATE
Ganache
Just chocolate and cream…. nothing else (and what else do you need?)
Ingredients
- 9 ounces bittersweet chocolate chopped fine
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Place the chocolate into a medium bowl. Heat the cream in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Bring just to a boil, watching very carefully because if it boils for a few seconds, it will boil out of the pot. When the cream has come to a boil, pour over the chopped chocolate, and whisk until smooth.
- Tap the bowl on the counter to settle the chocolate into the cream, then let it sit for 1 minute. Using a rubber spatula, slowly stir in a circular motion, starting from the center of the bowl, and working out to the sides. Be careful not to add too much air to the ganache. Stir until all the chocolate is melted, about 2 minutes. It may look done after 1 minute of stirring, but keep going to be sure it's emulsified.
- Let the ganache sit at room temperature until it cools to 70 degrees F. In a 65 degree F room, this will take approximately 4 hours or 2 hours in the refrigerator. You can speed up the process by pouring the ganache out onto a clean baking sheet (thinner layers cool faster.) Once the ganache reaches 70 degrees F, it is ready to be used. At this point it can be covered and stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
Notes
Notes:
- To get the “mirror cake” effect, pour over the cake while still slightly warm, starting at the center of the cake and working outward.
- For a fluffy frosting or chocolate filling, allow it to cool until very thick, then transfer to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment and whisk until light and fluffy.
Grandma Bates Flaky Fudge Icing
This is the classic "boiled" fudge icing recipe. While my grandmother loved it…. it wasn't very good. The textbook requires students to know about this icing (but honestly, you will probably never use it). I make it for my dad once a year and he's in heaven. Not sure why.
Ingredients
- 1 ½ Cups sugar
- 7 tablespoons whole milk
- 2 tablespoons shortening
- 2 tablespoons butter or margarine
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ½ cup cocoa powder
Instructions
- In a large sauce pot, milk, shortening, butter, and salt. Bring to a rolling boil over medium high heat, stirring constantly to prevent scorching.
- Once it reaches a hard, rolling boil, whisk in cacao powder till smooth. Reduce heat. Let simmer for two to three minutes without stirring.
- Remove from heat and pour into sifted powdered sugar. Stir with a high heat spatula until icing is smooth.
- Place over an ice bath and keep stirring until the icing starts to cool and lose it's shine. Add vanilla. Immediately pour onto cake. Allow to cool completely before serving.