December 21, 2011

A dissertation on icing

This is not about the wonderful Swiss, Italian or French style buttercreams, made with sugar and pure butter and eggs or yolks or whites, but about American decorator's icing (aka frosting), which is made with (usually) shortening and powdered (or icing) sugar, and, while wonderful for making icing roses, is absolutely the last thing you want to put in your mouth. At least, the last thing I want in my mouth.

The first trick is to avoid the shortening as much as possible; substitute either half or all of the shortening (by volume) with butter, and reduce the water in the recipe by a tablespoon (when substituting half) or two (when substituting all). The same volume of butter has the same amount of fat (by weight), and is also one-fifth water (by weight), which works out to a tablespoon or two. Butter also has flavor! Unfortunately, shortening is more solid at room temperature than butter. Not a problem in Philly in December, a big problem outdoors in Miami in July.

Once you've eliminated the butter, you can further improve the flavor by reducing the sugar, which can make the icing even softer at room temperature, unless you are making chocolate icing. In which case I add 3/4 cup of cocoa, reduce the sugar to 3 cups, and add two tablespoons of cold strong coffee or espresso in addition to the water. If the icing continues to be very stiff, continue adding water by the half tablespoon and beating.

Once the sugar is incorporated into the butter (not shortening!), just beat the living daylights out of it so that it becomes light and fluffy! In fact, the more you beat it, the lighter and fluffier it gets, the more volume you'll have, the more cake you can cover.

I have no easy way to ice a cake. Well, other than that offset icing spatulas really are much easier than a straight spatula. And that using a number 12 tip to pipe a dam around the edge of the layer before adding any filling that is likely to squish, like jelly or mousse. There is no trick to smooth icing other than practice and continuing going over and over the icing until it's correct ... or you give up and cut yourself a slice.

However, cupcakes are super easy to ice with a pastry bag. Drop a pastry star tip into a 14-inch bag (or a number 12 if you aren't piping brown icing) and swirl the icing one and half or twice around the top of the cupcake. If you feel really fancy, sprinkle with contrasting or coordinating colored sugar or jimmies.