Which frosting is best for cake?

The best frosting for your cake is the one that best suits the type of cake and the finished look that you’re trying to achieve. Here are some of the most commonly used types of icing:

BUTTERCREAM

A softer consistency that’s easy to work with and spread, buttercream is a great coating for decoration and also works as a delicious and tasty filling. Easy to make, simply cream together icing sugar and butter into a fluffy consistency, adding vanilla extract to the cream for extra flavour. The main thing to be mindful of when making your buttercream is the quality of butter that you use for the mix, as this can impact on the taste, consistency and appearance of the cream.

WHIPPED CREAM

If you’re looking for a much lighter frosting for your cakes, whipped cream is a perfect choice. Whipped cream is made by cold-whipping heavy whipping cream, vanilla extract and icing sugar until it’s light and fluffy. The perfect topper for meringues or as an addition to cheesecake, chantilly cream is light and full of flavour.

ROYAL ICING

Usually used to decorate dense fruit cakes, Royal Icing is made by beating egg whites, lime juice and icing sugar together until smooth enough to spread. A fluid, white paste that solidifies once dry, it’s used to decorate Christmas cakes, cookies, wedding cakes, biscuits and gingerbread houses. It’s also an effective choice for creating sharp peaks.

CREAM CHEESE

The perfect pairing to cupcakes, carrot cakes, red velvet cake and a delicious doughnut and pastry filling, cream cheese frosting is made by creaming together butter, icing sugar and cream cheese. A richer and heavier frosting than most types, use high-fat cream cheese for the best taste and texture.

MERINGUE

Crispy and delicious, meringue is made by beating together egg whites, granulated sugar and cold water. As whisking egg whites is quite an arduous process, it’s better to use a mixer for this. Whisk the egg whites to soft peaks, adding in spoonfuls of caster sugar between the peaks soft and stiff stages to sweeten the mix. The meringue can then be baked in the oven at 100•C until crisp. Meringues can be eaten both plain or flavoured; adding nuts into the mix is a popular way to flavour meringues for extra texture and taste. There are three popular types of meringue, French, Italian and Swiss (the method described here is for French Meringue). Italian meringue uses hot syrup as part of the mix, whereas Swiss meringue is made by beating together egg whites over a double boiler (a pan over heat). Eaten on their own, or used uncooked as a pastry topping, meringue is also commonly used in pavlovas and in Eton mess.

FONDANT

Most popularly used to cover celebration cakes, or for making small, flat decorations that don’t require a lot of detail, fondant is soft, flexible and pliable. Containing glycerine which makes it easy to stretch without tearing, it’s great when used with silicone moulds and can easily be reshaped.

What’s the difference between icing and frosting?

The terms icing and frosting are often used interchangeably to describe the same thing, but as a general rule, frosting is thick and fluffy and is used to coat cakes or as a tasty filling to a layer cake. Icing, on the other hand, is generally thinner and glossier than frosting and is used for glazing or for making more detailed decorations. Here’s a breakdown of which topping fits in which category, based on the types of frosting we’ve recently covered:

Frosting:
Buttercream, cream cheese frosting, Swiss meringue buttercream and Italian meringue buttercream frosting all fall into this category.

Icing:
Royal icing and fondant both fall under the category of icing. Royal icing is most popularly used for cookie decorating and works as a great edible glue for cookie assembly.