Lets talk about icing. Whether its glacé, buttercream, royal or dusting it will transform a simple sponge into a celebration cake or a fruit cake into a Christmas cake. (Confession: it has also served me well as a mid afternoon snack straight out of a bowl to stave off the three o’clock slump, much to the disgust and distaste of many a friend and family member!)
Here are a few simple recipes for icing that everyone should know:
Glacé
This one is super simple: sieve icing sugar into a bowl and then just add water. Be careful you only need a splash of water for a lot of icing sugar. Make sure you don’t add too much by adding the water a dessert spoon at a time.
Variations: use lemon juice instead of water for lemon drizzle icing, or replace a little of the water with apple juice or other fruit juice to give just a hint of fresh fruity flavour.
Buttercream
The main ingredients here are icing sugar and butter. Proportions-wise you want twice as much icing sugar as butter (e.g. 6oz icing sugar for 3oz butter), use softened unsalted butter for best results. Sieve your icing sugar then stir in the butter and stir to combine, if it isn’t coming together easily then add a splash of milk. For buttercream that is light as a feather take an electric whisk to it once it is mixed. (If you do so before it is mixed together you will have a kitchen decorated with icing sugar dust which might sound pretty but its certainly not conducive to tasty buttercream icing)
Tip: When spreading buttercream onto a cake, use a butter knife that has been plunged into a mug of boiling water. The hot knife will keep a smooth finish because the icing won’t stick to it.
Variations: for chocolate buttercream, replace 1 oz icing sugar with cocoa powder. For coffee icing add some coffee essence (recipe here). Really you can add any flavouring you can think of to this base.
Royal
This is the ideal robust icing for a celebration cake or christmas cake. Typically it is added to a fruit cake which has the strength to support a heavier icing and it will often be accompanied by marzipan. The strength of this icing comes from the egg white which is whipped into it. (psst, you can buy this icing and roll it out like marzipan, but its always more satisfying when you’ve made it yourself!)
Royal Icing is perfect for adding sugar craft decorations, you can also paint onto it with coloured sugar paint
I’m going to direct you to the one and only Mary Berry for a recipe which has never let me down:
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675g/1½lb icing sugar
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3 free-range egg whites
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3 tsp lemon juice
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1½ tsp glycerine
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extra egg white to thin icing if required
- Sieve the icing sugar.
- Whisk the egg whites in a large bowl until they become frothy.
- Add the icing sugar to the egg whites, a spoonful at a time, and fold in.
- Add the lemon juice and glycerine and stir.
- Beat the icing until it is very stiff and white and stands up in peaks.
- Spread over the top and sides of the cake and rough up the icing with a spatula so that it forms peaks. (If you want a smooth icing you may need to thin the icing down a little with more egg white and use to ice the sides and top of the cake using a palette knife.)
- Transfer to a cake tin and seal up until ready for use.
If you would like any more tips for making icing (or would like to share in my confession of snacking on cereal bowlfuls of the stuff) then let me know in the comments!
Butter Nut 