Remember as a kid, eating the icing off the top of the cupcake and then leave the cake behind? Yeah, we still do that.
Baking cakes is fun and all, but they are really just an elaborate vehicle for the sugary stuff (carrot cake, we're looking at you). Great slabs of icing, fluffing up the top, the thicker the better. That heavenly feeling when you slide your tongue right through the lot.
A quick note on fondant icing. We'll include a recipe for the traditionalists, but, let's be honest, if it requires rolling, it's not our favourite. Give us a swirly buttercream any day of the week. Or every day of the week. We'd like that.
This frosting is the ultimate slatherer. It's basically a meringue with added butter, so it holds its shape beautifully and tastes like a dream. Swirl it, pipe it, tint it, drag it and lick it straight off the spatula when you're done.
Peanut butter, sour cream, butter and... dextose?. Because we wouldn't want to bump up the calories on a chocolate layer cake any more than necessary, right? Regardless, this nutty sour cream frosting is all the way okay.
Fondant memories
We promised a fondant recipe, and here it is. Fussy, but good at weddings. Also rather lovely in a peppermint slice biscuit.
1 tbs gelatine powder
1/4 cup cold water
1 1/2 tbs glycerine
1/2 cup glucose syrup
1 tsp vanilla essence
7 cups pure icing sugar, sifted
Dissolve gelatine into water over a low heat without boiling. Remove from heat and stir in glycerine and glucose syrup. Add vanilla essence and set aside to cool.
Sift the icing sugar into a large glass bowl and make a well in the centre. Pour the gelatine mixture into the well and stir until combined.
Knead the icing until it is smooth then roll out with a rolling pin to desired thickness.
When your grandma/nonna/ยาย/omi made icing, she probably made it just like this. Icing sugar mixed with a bit of lemon or orange juice. It's been lifting cakes around the world since forever.
If you have to
Another of the fussier icings, marzipan has a distinctive flavour that is integral to many of the traditional cakes it wraps. A Sri Lankan Christmas cake just wouldn't be the same without it. There's an easy-to-follow recipe for marizpan here.
Fresh ricotta perfectly takes the place of cream cheese in this maple syrup-sweetened ricotta icing. Be extra-generous when slathering. We'll accept nothing less than teeth marks.
A genius move sees melted dark chocolate whipped through a cream cheese icing that also has added butter. This frosting literally melts on the tongue and could well be our undoing. What a way to go!
Golden syrup is an ingredient in this salted caramel icing and we are here for that. Remember when salted caramel was in everything. Good times.
Though lacking proper swirl-properties, royal icing is quite nice on biscuits at Christmas time. It gets its stiff upper lip by adding egg whites to icing sugar and beating them into meringue-like submission. Best keep it covered to prevent it drying to a firm lacquer before you use it.
The only icing that could possibly give buttercream a run for its money is cream cheese frosting. Especially when troweled onto carrot cake, or passionfruit cake, and especially hummingbird cake.
This icing will see your cream cheese frosting and raise it with a generous hit of mascarpone. Trust us, when it comes to a red velvet layer cake, it wins.
Coconut cream is a worthy addition to a decidedly tropical icing. Whip it through with butter, sugar and passionfruit to send your lucky taste buds on a quick island getaway.
The only thing better than icing is booze. So, this recipe had us at rum buttercream.
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