Everyone always asks me how I do my cakes. Well, it's all in how it tastes of course! The prettiest cake doesn't mean a lot if it tastes nasty. My cake mix is a government secret :) I do use a mix base to save time, but I also add extra ingredients and change up the mixing process a little. The icing however, is fair game.
I use two different types of icing, depending on what kind of cake, the weather, and what I'm decorating. Buttercream is made of shortening and powdered sugar. Pretty much every store birthday cake you've ever eaten has had buttercream icing. It's highly fattening :) yum! and can be flavored most any way you like. It's big downfall - MS summers. Heat and humidity break down the shortening, and you have a droopy cake. Royal icing is my personal favorite. I've been known to eat it straight from the bowl. It's made of powdered sugar, liquid flavoring, and either egg whites or merengue powder. It's lighter than buttercream, can still be flavored any way, and is smoother once on a cake. It dries to a smooth sheen that buttercream just doesn't do. Lots of cookies are decorated in royal, and it's starting to catch on in cakes.
Buttercream
Buttercream is very hard to make if you don't have a stand mixer. However, they now sell it in cans for those who want an easy option. This recipe makes 3 cups or so of icing.
1/2 c Crisco
1/2 c softened butter (unsalted)
1 tsp clear vanilla
4 c sifted powdered sugar
2 T milk
For medium thick icing, cream the butter and shortening in your mixer bowl. That is, beat them together until you can't tell they were ever two separate things. Add your vanilla. SLOWLY add the sugar, half a cup at a time. Make sure to scrape the sides of the mixer bowl every so often. It will look dry, so add your milk at the end. Beat on medium until it's all evenly light and fluffy.
As always in icing, for thinner icing, add more milk, but carefully. A tablespoon at a time, and beat well in between. For thicker icing, add more powdered sugar, again half a cup at a time.
If I'm in a hurry and and want more icing fast, I add a can or two of plain vanilla icing. It mixes well, and sort of tones the heaviness of the buttercream down.
You can keep a wet paper towel over the bowl while you're working to keep it from drying out. When you aren't using it, keep it in the fridge or freezer in a sealed tupperware container. After taking it out of the fridge/freezer, you'll want to microwave it a little and rewhip it. I actually prefer the icing after it's been frozen a while and then rewhipped. Somehow it's smoother, and the flavors in it have matured.
Royal Icing
Royal icing is relatively new to the popularity scene of cake making. Buttercream has run the scene for a long time, but people are hungry for new and exciting things.
Like I said above, royal is lighter and more weather friendly than buttercream. I like it because it doesn't taste so...buttercreamy. It's very light, and goes great with vanilla or fruit flavors, but any flavor will work. Using liquid eggs, you get a more sweet icing with a light flavor, because it takes less liquid flavoring. I use merengue powder as well, but it works better if you want an icing with more flavor, because more of your flavoring is used to wet the icing. Here's the recipe for plain icing, using egg whites.
3 egg whites
Powdered sugar
2 T liquid
The egg whites need to be perfectly yolk free. Add your powdered sugar a cup at a time until you get the icing just a littler thicker than you want it to be. You don't need a mixer to do this, just a whisk and a strong arm. After you get the icing to that point, add your liquid. It can be milk, vanilla flavoring, lemon juice, whatever. I like using lemon soda for lemon icing. It makes a creamier icing somehow, and has a crisp taste.
You need to use this icing right away, and absolutely keep a wet paper towel over the bowl. This icing dries faster, and when it does it dries to a hard, shiny finish. Since it does have egg whites, you obviously don't want to leave the bowl out for a long, long time. If you use pasteurized eggs or merengue powder, you don't have to worry about this.
Thick royal icing is used to pipe fancy decorations or lettering on cakes. Thin icing can be used to fill large spaces with color or ice cookies, and is great for glazing pound cakes.
Once you make icing a few times and get the hang of how it works and your preferences, you can experiment to your heart's desire. Food coloring, flavor oils, citric acid (that's a favorite of mine, it adds a kick to fruit icings you just don't find anywhere else), whatever you like. Hey, it's icing, you can't go that wrong!
